The LNP has slammed the state government for refusing to give permission to volunteer rural firefighters to fight fires in places like Logan.
LNP Springwood candidate Lirrily Boulton says if elected, her party is committed to spending $500,000 on a new fire truck, new shed and equipment, and training for volunteer firefighters in Mt Cotton.
Ms Boulton says the reason they’re doing that is because the Mt Cotton brigade had been trying for 10 years to get established and when they finally reached a point at which they could do so earlier this year, they were only given permission to conduct vegetation management and education and not fight fires.
“This is incredibly frustrating because we have volunteer firefighters there who have come from New South Wales and Victoria where they are very experienced in fighting absolutely ferocious bushfires and yet they haven’t been given permission to protect life and property in their own area,” she said.
“The way that volunteer bushfire fighting brigades work is they work hand in glove in other states with urban brigades.
“The urban brigades might get there more quickly, but the volunteer brigades have the right equipment to go into the bush and the knowledge of how to fight bushfires and it’s very important that we have both in our region.
“In Mt Cotton and surrounding suburbs, there’s 1,000 hectares of fuel load so there is a significant risk there.
“It’s incredibly dry, particularly at the moment, and if the winds were blowing in the right direction, could very quickly whip right across the suburbs through abandoned bushland reserves and Daisy Hill Conservation Park and create a risk to more homes on the side of the forest, as well as in the Mt Cotton area.”
