A NSW Rural Fire Service volunteer says he risked disciplinary action from the service by wearing his yellow brigade uniform into the ACT Supreme Court yesterday as he checked ''nothing nasty'' was being said about volunteers during the proceedings.
Wee Jasper volunteer bushfire brigade captain Tim Cathles sat through the proceedings yesterday wearing his uniform and a medal he received from the ACT Government for his part in fighting the January 2003 bushfires.
Mr Cathles was on duty the night of January 8, 2003, when lightning strikes ignited fires in NSW and the ACT, 10 days before almost 500 homes were destroyed and four people died when a firestorm hit Canberra.
He is not a party to the legal action but wanted to hear for himself that the interests of volunteers were not being threatened and to make a statement by wearing his uniform, even though his zone office had told him he could be disciplined, possibly by being stripped of his captain's role.
''I'm not worried at all. I want them to bring it on, quite frankly. I'm very happy to stand up for myself. I've got the backing of all my brigade,'' he said.
A spokesman for the NSW Rural Fire Service said last night all members were obliged to meet service standards and any breach was assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Two days have been set aside in the ACT Supreme Court for lawyers to argue how a trial should proceed in March in which insurance companies and others representing 4000 plaintiffs are seeking compensation from the ACT and NSW for personal injury and property loss suffered in the 2003 bushfires.
The vast majority of the plaintiffs are clients of the insurance companies NRMA, Suncorp and QBE.
More than 100 plaintiffs are also taking action as a separate group seeking damages for property loss, personal injury and psychiatric distress.
Brindabella landowner Wayne West is also separately seeking compensation for the destruction of his property.
The trial was due to start on Monday but had earlier been rescheduled to start on March 1, next year.
Counsel for NRMA, Justin Gleeson SC, successfully argued yesterday that the claims of the almost 2050 plaintiffs he represented should be heard as a representative action as part of the main trial.
That meant only the circumstances of one couple, Joseph and Janet Walker, of Lincoln Close, Chapman, would be put during the trial and the ruling on that case would be binding on the remaining more than 2040 plaintiffs.
Mr Gleeson said the plaintiffs were all seeking compensation for property loss in the Canberra suburbs rather than personal injury. They were also not arguing a ''failure-to-warn'' case but instead that the management of the fires in their first two days led to the damage to the property.
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