THE wildfires that swept Victoria have died down, leaving in their wake one deceased man, some 350 destroyed buildings, more than 15.000 dead livestock and and hundreds of Victorians shattered by injury and loss of family homes, farms and machinery.
And an open letter to Premier Allen from Country Fire Authority volunteers, the United Firefighters Union and the Across Victoria Alliance Group has laid the blame fairly and squarely on Premier Jacinta Allen and her government.
Hit hardest were small country hamlets like Harcourt, Longwood, Ghin Ghin, Yarck and Ruffy. The wildfires that swept across dry grass paddocks, undergrowth and “protected” trees and shrubs left these exposed tiny towns even more bereft of buildings than they already were.
The hamlet of Ruffy, in the central Victorian sheep and cattle district between the Hume Freeway and the Victorian high country, only a few buildings were left on the main street, including the town hall and Country Fire Authority (CFA) shed.
Ruffy local Theo Lagarde, a CFA volunteer lieutenant, lost his home and said many questions were running through his mind since the bushfires, including whether they could actually rebuild.
In a big-picture view, the fires simply sped up what the Agenda 2030 central planners are doing – making life difficult for rural dwellers whose traditional farming activities and small, self-sufficient communities are inimical to the concept of locking up and “wilding” the landscape and moving humans into digitally surveilled and controlled big urban centres.
During the fires Premier Allan herself told Victorians not to visit their fire-devastated areas. “You don’t belong there,” she said on national TV. A Freudian slip?
As recently noted by Cairns News, environmentalist policies are literally fueling the fire danger, something repeatedly noted by the fire fighters.
The historic big fires of Black Thursday (1851), Black Friday (1939), Ash Wednesday (1983), and Black Saturday (2009) are lessons that still have not been learned by those in political power.
Those who did know what was going on – the volunteer and professional fire fighters – penned an open letter to the Premier dated January 6th, 2026. The letter’s main points are as follows:
“An Open Letter to:
The Honourable Jacinta Allan,
Premier of Victoria,
1 Treasury Place,
Melbourne VIC 3002.
VICTORIA IS NOT BUSHFIRE READY.”
“Dear Premier,
You are no doubt aware that the peak body representing the Australian Fire Services (Australian and New Zealand Council for Fire and Emergency Services) has issued a deeply alarming forecast for Victoria ahead of the coming summer bushfire season.
In short, the peak body for fire season in Australia has foreshadowed potential catastrophic outcomes which no doubt will result in the loss of life and property if this were to eventuate as predicted.
Premier, collectively we place you on notice that we do not have the resources or equipment to confront such a scenario. This situation is compounded by the all-time low morale of volunteer and career firefighters, as a direct result of your failure to invest in Victoria’s Fire Services.”
Two further extracts from the letter:-
FIRSTLY . . . . . . . “We must be unequivocal: Victoria is amid an aging Fire Truck and equipment crisis, and your government’s failure to act has placed firefighters and the public at avoidable and unnecessary risk.
We have written repeatedly to you, the Treasurer, and the Minister for Emergency Services, outlining how frontline firefighters are being forced to defend life and property using a fleet that is aged, unreliable, and increasingly unsafe. Those warnings have been repeatedly and systematically ignored.
In the meantime, firefighters continue to respond to emergencies every single day, carrying this added burden of stress and uncertainty, when their focus should be on the job at hand unsure whether their own equipment – equipment that should be their lifeline – may fail beneath them.
This is not just unacceptable. It is utterly indefensible. Over 64% of Fire Rescue Victoria’s fleet and approximately 800 CFA fire trucks are over age, in direct contradiction to fleet replacement policy. Some appliances within both FRV and CFA are more than 30 years old and becoming not fit for purpose. No firefighter – and no Victorian community – should have to depend on trucks older than many of the people who serve on them.”
SECONDLY . . . . . . “Compounding these fire truck and equipment failures and an aging fleet, is the alarming decline in fuel-reduction burning across Victoria.
“Hazard-reduction activity has halved since Labor came to power in 2014, despite the government’s own assessments showing that the state’s bushfire risk is now worse than the levels reached in the lead-up to Black Saturday and likely worse than the conditions preceding the 1983, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2019/20 megafires.
“The State Government has also failed to honour the key recommendation of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, which required a minimum of 5% of public land to be fuel-reduced each year. In reality, the government has completed only around 20% of the recommended fuel-reduction burns — meaning approximately 80% have not been carried out.
“By allowing risk to climb unchecked while simultaneously failing to maintain a safe, reliable emergency services fleet, the government is exposing communities, volunteers, and career firefighters to unacceptable and avoidable danger.”
John Gault, a prominent resident of Maryborough in Central Victoria, says these are the words of the men and women who are CFA members, UFU Members, AVA Members. “Who knows, if they do not know?” he posted on his Facebook page.
“This is the result of the most appalling lack of good Government in this State, and this government must be held responsible for it. They cannot, and must not be allowed to dodge their way out of this fundamental failure.
“I call on every Victorian to speak, call, write or represent themselves to the Premier and/or their local Member of Parliament, whatever party, and make their feelings well and truly be known to the Government (and the Opposition) in this state.
“This simply has to change, and change now.”
