Fed up country firefighters are refusing to fight fires started by wind turbines, solar panels and giant batteries. Placing their lives at mortal risk to save others and their property, would be heroic enough. However, most of them are volunteers who spend hundreds of hours being trained in firefighting methods and how to do so safely – at their own time and expense.

When Summer bites, spare a thought for rural communities riddled with wind turbines: the perfect incendiary device. Around the world, hundreds have blown up in balls of flame – in the process – each one raining molten metal and over 1,000 litres of flaming gear oil and hydraulic fluid (see our post here) and burning plastic earthwards.

Wind turbine fires are ten times more common than the wind industry and its parasites claim (see our post here and check out this website: http://turbinesonfire.org).

Large-scale solar creates its very own fire risk, with panels known to self-immolate without warning.

Likewise, giant lithium-ion batteries will burst into toxic fireballs at the drop of a hat: firefighters simply stand upwind and watch them burn themselves out, over a period of days.

Connecting thousands of generators spread across the countryside with a veritable cobweb of high voltage transmission lines increases fire risk, exponentially. Every time the wind picks up strength during summer there is a high probability of lines clashing, arcing and setting the country ablaze.

Now, with more than their own lives at risk, Victoria’s Country Fire Authority volunteers have said ‘enough is enough’.

This group of courageous volunteers knows full well that the insanely deadly risk created by part-time power generators can be readily avoided by returning to a sensible energy policy – starting by keeping Australia’s coal-fired power plants up and running and ultimately moving to nuclear plants located on the same sites.

As the articles below attest, Victoria’s country firefighters are well within their rights to refuse to play ball, anymore.

CFA strike: Volunteers refuse to fight wind, solar and transmission line fires
The Weekly Times
Peter Hunt
18 June 2024

At least 24 CFA brigades are taking strike action, refusing to fight fires on land hosting high-voltage transmission lines, solar or wind farms, over what they call the Victorian Government’s “reckless renewables expansion”.

Most of the brigades are in communities that are being carved up by the 500kV Victoria-NSW Interconnector and subject to more wind and solar farm developments, as the Allan Government rushes to generate 95 per cent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2035.

The volunteer firefighters have written to Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes and CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan stating they would “restrict turn-out commitments to incidents at electricity generation and transmission infrastructure sites to ‘property perimeter defence’,” only entering the site if lives were at risk.

The brigades’ letter calls for “an immediate halt” of all current and proposed high voltage transmission lines and renewable energy infrastructure projects, and demands the government give “genuine consideration of concerns and acknowledgment of the negative impacts to our people and communities.

“Further action will be considered and taken as deemed necessary,” the letter stated.

Gre Gre Village CFA captain and St Arnaud deputy group officer Peter Knights said: “Our brigades are not prepared to defend renewables infrastructure that destroys our communities, carves up our land, reduces our productive capacity and divides people.”

Most of the 24 brigades backing the strike sit along 120kms of the proposed VNI West transmission line corridor, from north of Stawell and out past Charlton.

Traynors Lagoon CFA captain Jason Barratt said Victorians lived in one of the most fire-prone places on earth, yet the government was rushing to roll out renewables that increased the risk of fire in regional communities.

“CFA volunteers are becoming less and less, but they’re increasing the load on us,” Mr Barratt said.

Brigades say they have no hope of fighting wind-turbine fires and warn the CFA has issued contradictory standard operating procedures for the fireground when working near transmission lines that put their lives at risk from smoke-induced flashovers.

CFA brigades are already struggling to deal with fires sparked by isolated powerlines and transformers that go unnoticed for hours, to become firestorms that engulf the state, as happened on Ash Wednesday 1983, Black Saturday 2009 and the St Patrick’s Day fires of 2018.

The International Association for Fire Safety Science estimates wind turbines catch fire at a rate of 1 in 1710, with UK research engineers finding “the three elements of the fire triangle, fuel (oil and polymers in the turbine), oxygen (wind) and ignition (electric, mechanical and lighting) are present and confined to the small and closed compartment of the turbine.

“Moreover, once ignition occurs in a turbine, the chances of externally fighting the fire are very slim due to the height of the nacelle (turbine) and the often remote location of the wind farm.”

Energy Safe Victoria estimates there are about 2300 turbines in Victoria, with planning records showing another 311 under construction and hundreds more seeking Victorian Government approval.

The volunteer strike leaves hundreds of wind turbines without firefighter protection this summer and raises questions over CFA command’s ability to draw on Fire Rescue Victoria for support, given its urban pumpers are incapable of fighting fires off road and without access to hydrants.

Mr Knight said he “can’t imagine that book makers in insurance companies will think it’s a good thing”, so would cost them (renewable project developers) more.

As for fighting fires around transmission lines, Mr Knights said the CFA had issued standard operating procedures that were contradictory and dangerous to volunteers.

The CFA’s SOPs advise brigades “not to directly attack fires in transmission line easement areas and crew members should maintain a safe working distance of at least 25 metres from lines or outside of easement areas, whichever is greater”.

Mr Barratt said there were “too many grey areas in the SOP to make us feel safe”, such as whether brigades should be 25m outside the easement and the role of fire behaviour during windy conditions.

Mr Knights said 25m was unacceptable and that brigades needed to be at least 100m from transmission lines during a fire, given the risk of smoke acting as a conductor and causing a flashover.

The CFA SOP states smoke from fires near or under transmission lines can create electrical arcs or flashovers that are “potentially life threatening to someone standing nearby”, but gives no details under what conditions this can occur.

Meanwhile the Australian Energy Market Operator has established a subsidiary Transmission Company Victoria, which is in the midst of seeking Essential Services Commission approval for a transmission licence, which would give it the right to enter properties without landholder approval and compulsorily acquire easements.
The Weekly Times

Volunteer firefighters say they will not fight fires around new renewables projects, transmission lines
ABC Rural
Angus Verley
19 June 2024

Volunteer firefighters from a number of brigades in Victoria’s central north will not attend blazes at properties hosting renewable energy plants or transmission lines.

Yesterday, captains from five brigades wrote to the CFA and the state government to declare that their members were not prepared to fight fires near or involving infrastructure such as the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector (VNI West).

VNI West — a transmission line that would run hundreds of kilometres through farmland in western Victoria — has triggered angry protests from farmers who say they do not want it on their land.

The proposed transmission line is one of many being planned across Victoria to get the power from planned renewable energy projects into the national electricity grid.

‘Pretty simple’
Jason Barratt, the captain of the Traynors Lagoon Fire Brigade and spokesperson for the newly formed Firefighters Against Renewables Over Victoria, told ABC Rural the group’s message was “pretty simple”.

“Any renewable infrastructure or projects, we’re just going to refuse to fight fires in and around them,” he said.

“We’ll basically sit at the fence and wait for it to come out to us — we won’t go in and put our lives at risk.”

Mr Barratt said landowners who agreed to host transmission lines on their properties should not expect the assistance of firefighters.

“Anyone who’s got renewable infrastructure will have to find their own way to protect it because CFA volunteers consider it too unsafe to do that,” he said.

“You have crops and sheep that will be unprotected and there could be insurance implications as well.”

Mr Barratt said an additional 19 brigades had agreed to join the action.

Letter of demands
The group’s letter of demands calls for an immediate halt to “all current and proposed projects” and requests “appropriate reconsideration of alternative solutions”, which Mr Barratt said should include nuclear power generation.

The cosignatories said infrastructure such as VNI West would “greatly impact our ability to control wildfire both on ground and particularly from the air”.

Mr Barratt said transmission lines and renewable energy plants would make it more difficult to fight fires.

“We’re worried about our ability to fight fires around transmission lines and the CFA hasn’t been very good at all at giving us clear instructions on how safe it is to fight fires around them,” Mr Barratt said.

“At the end of the day, we are volunteers and the government is willingly putting this infrastructure in and adding risk to our community and our members and it’s unnecessary.”

This is the latest protest action by affected regional communities against planned transmission line projects being rolled out to connect planned renewable projects.
ABC Rural

https://www.farov.com.au/

Firefighters Against Renewables Over Victoria (FAROV)
Press Release

We are a collective of 5 Fire Brigades situated under the proposed VNI West 500kV Transmission Lines and in a proposed Renewable Energy zone as part of the Victorian State Government’s mission to cover our food bowl and countryside in renewable infrastructure.

We have received commitments from a further 19 impacted Brigades and looking to add the support of many more either in joining our proposed action or taking their own variation of action.

We seek your support in publishing the attached call to CFA Brigades to sign on to proposed Industrial Action by the Volunteer Brigades, and to explain to our communities that our intentions are altruistic and with the safety of all residents in these areas and our volunteers in mind. We seek genuine long term solutions to energy production and transmission, not short term money grabbing by international investors and cash strapped Governments.

Letter of Demands from CFA Brigades to State Emergency Services Minister and CFA CO
Affected CFA Brigades have united in a call for industrial action to achieve demands with respect to the future of their role as firefighters in view of the Victorian State Government proposed reckless renewables expansion. We consider untenable the risks to lives and property, and irreparable damage imposed by proposed installations of High Voltage Transmission Lines and Renewable Energy Infrastructure.

Industrial action is proposed until

• Genuine consideration of concerns and acknowledgement of the negative impacts to our people and communities is given
• An immediate halt is effected of all current and proposed projects
• Appropriate reconsideration of alternative solutions, is conducted
• Action taken so that the safety and security of our members and communities can be assured.

It is proposed by the initiating Brigades, and Brigades signing on in support, that they commit to the following :-

1. Undertaking to restrict turn out commitment to incidents at electricity generation and transmission infrastructure sites to “Property Perimeter Defense” only. Brigades will not commit to enter land or premises upon which such infrastructure is situated, to complete fire management tasks unless there are personal safety issues identified by the incident controller. Brigades will not commit to defending or protecting electricity generation or transmission assets forthwith.
2. Undertaking that, by commencing Industrial Action, the members of the brigade will not implement or continue the Industrial Action where that action would endanger the Life or personal safety or welfare of our community.
3. Brigade specific concerns and proposed actions will be communicated to CFA, additional to that contained in this letter, including restrictions to turn out capacity, training and reporting of incidents.

Further action will be considered and taken as deemed necessary.

Our Volunteers, and colleagues at Fire Rescue Victoria, are being committed to a future use without consent, to provide free labour and fire protection services to a greedy, investor centric renewables industry which is focused only on profit with complete disregard of the destruction of our unique, beautiful and productive regional landscapes and communities.

Wind Towers the height of the Rialto, Solar Installations covering massive expanses of productive farm land and Transmission Lines the height of MCG lights, all with the propensity to ignite fires and impede safe firefighting, placed in the extreme fire risk areas of regional Australia, are simply illogical and unnecessary, given the short life span and inadequacy of wind turbines and large solar as a long term power generation solution. Genuine alternatives to these installations and the huge transmission line projects such as WRL and VNI West are available.

These installations will greatly impede our ability to control wildfire both on ground and particularly from the air. The access to these areas, as controlled by Renewable Energy Entities, will be restricted and therefore unsafe.

The State Government of Victoria controls this process and we demand of them the following:-

• Acknowledge that high voltage lines are potentially lethal in wildfire scenarios.
• Acknowledge that high voltage lines in high fire risk areas jeopardise firefighter and community safety and that powering down 500kV Transmission Lines during wildfire events is not a realistic protection mechanism.
• Acknowledge that Wind Turbines and industrial solar facilities provide probable ignition sources in high fire risk areas and impede fire fighting actions.
• Ensure impacted residents and communities can object to proposed Renewable Energy (RE) projects on the basis of fire risk and community impact. Specifically, to reinstate rights to object to RE facility project proposals through VCAT, as removed by State Government in April.
• Acknowledge that owners of renewable energy facilities will be responsible and liable for their own fire risk and management and that Volunteers are not compelled to turn out to emergency events at these locations.
• A cessation of proposed imposition of Fire Services Levy increases announced in the Victorian State Budget 2024 and a review of that system with amendments to align tax collection to location of spend and contribution by volunteers, particularly in rural and remote Victoria.
• Provide transparency and full public disclosure of budgeted consumer and government financial contribution, and detailed stakeholder interests, of each renewable infrastructure project.

The CFA is called to support it’s members and employees as follows :-

• Clear, accurate and concise safe working distances for attending and attacking wildfire for all fireground participants near High voltage transmission lines and renewable facilities.
• Ensure SOP’s must dispel any misinformation that it is in any way safe to operate near or under a 500kV line whilst managing a wildfire in the vicinity, and establish concise safe working procedures and distances for both CFA Brigades and Private Units attending.
• Acknowledge that High Transmission Lines placed across broadacre cropping and grazing land in high fire danger areas makes an unacceptable risk to firefighters and communities in the vicinity.
• Active support of Brigades to rebuke misleading information regarding Fire Safety and Procedure as it concerns RE Projects, published to the Public by Government and/or RE Corporate entities.
• Clear guidance as to access rights of both Brigades and Private units on to Renewable Energy Company controlled property, and full guarantee of indemnity for actions taken both as Brigade Volunteers and private units when attending fire incidents at such properties.
• Undertaking to prioritise provision of adequate trucks and equipment upgrades.

We do not take our decision to take industrial action lightly. Our members have decades of dedicated service to the CFA, both to our local districts and at major fire emergencies. We expect Victorian State Government and CFA management to not only listen to our concerns but to initiate actions to prevent the destruction of our communities and our Brigades, from proposed renewables transition.

We willingly accept the risks that nature and mishap throw up from time to time but we refuse to be used as an unpaid resource for corporate, government and private interests to profit from an already stretched volunteer system. We are there to be utilized by our community but not used as free labour.
FAROV

Rural Volunteer Fire Fighters in Victoria are taking a stand against the unconscionable rollout of wind, solar, battery and HV transmission lines. Their concerns are for their safety and the safety of the communities they serve. They are also concerned about the destruction of agricultural land, grazing land and areas of high biodiversity. Government and the ‘renewables’ industry have shown they have no concern for the safety of communities, the preservation of agricultural and grazing land, no interest in preserving Australia’s unique flora and fauna and also a complete disregard for the inability of landowners to procure adequate public liability insurance at a reasonable cost.

It is time to push back against politicians who are elected to serve their constituents but appear to be beholding to the ‘renewables’ industry, an industry that does not have a plan in place for the decommissioning and disposal of tens of thousands of tonnes of PV solar panels, wind turbines and batteries at their ‘end of life’. This is a failure to comply with their obligations pursuant to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999:

3A Principles of ecologically sustainable development

The following principles are principles of ecologically sustainable development:

(a) decision-making processes should effectively integrate both long-term and short-term economic, environmental, social and equitable considerations;

(b) if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;

(c) the principle of inter-generational equity—that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations;

(d) the conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity should be a fundamental consideration in decision-making.

They are also ignoring their obligations pursuant to the 2015 Paris Agreement Article 2.1(b):

“Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production”;

Volunteer Fire Fighters from other Victorian Brigades and other State Brigades consider supporting your colleagues in their pushback against the community destroying and unconscionable rollout of wind, PV solar, battery and HV transmission projects.

We will prevail.

Kind regards,

Bill Stinson