HASLUCK MHR Tania Lawrence says mobile incident units offer more flexibility for fire incident responses and no longer take days to set up as technology and knowledge of their use improves.

“Given the significant variability of fire threats and locations across the Perth Hills, mobile incident units provide the versatility that our emergency services have sought,” she said.

“They can then locate the ICCs where they are needed to respond to the given emergency; be it fire, storm or even floods up north, and scale up the centre by transporting in technology ready-to-go units, instead of the days it takes to set up as we saw at Mundaring arena.”

The Australasian fire and emergency service authorities council (AFAC) recommended in a review of the management of the 2021 Wooroloo bushfire that DFES should lead the development of a multi-agency incident control centre to be built in or around the Perth Hills.

This was the first of 13 recommendations supplied to improve fire incident response and minimise damage to land and property during emergency fire events.

“Knowledge and technology are improving very rapidly in this area, and we need to take the advice of the emergency service professionals about what is required, which is what we have done in adopting a mobile solution,” Ms Lawrence said.

Ms Lawrence, who was re-elected on May 3, said the new mobile incident control units were supported by a $1.25 million investment from the Albanese Government as reported in Incident control centre reduced to mobile units (Echo News, February 28).

A Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) spokesperson said the new  control centres would be a versatile asset which would aid firefighting efforts but did not confirm how they compared with a dedicated control centre in the Perth Hills.

“Four mobile incident control centres (MICC) have been built specifically for DFES and allow management teams to be closer to incidents,” they said.

“Each MICC is a mobile cache with structures and equipment to set up control centres, accommodation and catering hubs.

“They can be used as a standalone capability or can be positioned to complement an existing facility.

“The control centres currently used are restricted to bushfires, but the mobility of the new units allows our response teams to set up a command post during a range of incidents almost anywhere in the state.

“A trial of the control centres will foster the development of further enhancements such as remote satellite internet and stand-alone solar power with battery energy storage systems.

“The MICCs will be a major boost in support for our career and volunteer emergency services crews.”

Since the Wooroloo fire, aside from the incident control centre, the Perth Hills have pushed for a boost to telecommunications reliability in the event of major bushfires as reported in Mundaring strengthen their ties in Canberra (Echo News, July 12, 2024)

Ms Lawrence said Labor candidate for Bullwinkel Trish Cook recently pledged $3.9m to upgrade six fire stations in the electorate and also a further $1.2m to increase battery backup power for 23 mobile towers.

The estimated insurance loss of the Wooroloo bushfire was $93m according to the AFAC review.