South Australia’s Emergency Services Minister, Michael Wright, has warned the lives of 15,000 CFS volunteers will be at risk if property owners in bushfire-prone areas don’t properly prepare their properties this fire season.

Minister Wright said it was inconceivable many property owners had not heeded the messages from the CFS and the MFS to clear vegetation and create a defendable space around their homes.

Recent research by the CFS indicates that two-thirds of people living in bushfire-prone are not adequately prepared for the summer ahead.

“The CFS volunteers do a fantastic job in helping protect our community,” Mr Wright said. 

“Therefore, it is critically important property owners take some responsibility and clear potential fuel loads on their property and ensure that their property is defendable.”

The Country Fire Service Volunteers President, Ken Schutz, said while the CFS were well trained and well equipped, many were frustrated when they came across properties that were potential death traps.

“Our firefighters will not put themselves at risk trying to defend a property that is undefendable or without an accessible escape route," he said

“If owners don’t take some responsibility to try and prepare their property then why should we put ourselves at risk to try and defend it?”

Mr Schutz said many people now living in bushfire-prone areas had not lived through a major bushfire and therefore had little appreciation of how a bushfire would affect them.

“However, they have huge expectations of the CFS, believing we will be at their doorstep as soon as a bushfire threatens.

“We do what we can with defendable properties but if we can say no lives have been lost during the bushfire season then we have achieved our greatest goal,” Mr Schutz said.

“The reality is all CFS firefighters are volunteers. They don’t get paid to protect people’s property. They do it out of the goodness of their heart.”

CFS volunteers have been training continuously throughout the year and are well prepared for the bushfire season ahead.

“Our appliances are ready, the firefighting equipment checked and rechecked and the systems we use have been prepared and rehearsed,” Mr Schutz said.

“However, a bushfire always throws up new challenges. Things will never go as planned because a bushfire has a mind of its own and we never have any control over the weather.”