A streamlined emergency command, faster warnings, a national phone warning system, evacuations and a major overhaul of the contentious ''stay or go'' policy are among the early recommendations made to the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
Submissions from counsel assisting were heard yesterday, suggesting many urgent changes were needed before the start of the next fire season to reduce the chances of a similar disaster to the February fires that claimed 173 lives.
The role of the Country Fire Authority chief officer, currently Russell Rees, also came under scrutiny, with the commission hearing that MrRees's ''oversight'' approach should be abandoned in favour of more direct responsibility for warning the public of present and predictable dangers.
Senior counsel assisting the commission, Jack Rush QC, said Mr Rees was obliged to be responsible for warnings and the protection of life, but instead adopted more of an oversight role.
''The coordination role, as described by Mr Rees, we say is divorced from fundamental aspects of the statutory responsibility that was delegated on the day,'' he said.
Victorian Premier John Brumby and the fire authority have defended Mr Rees, with Mr Brumby saying no more could have been asked of him. The organisation has said Mr Rees will be in charge for the next fire season.
The recommendations wrapped up the first block of evidence, which has included examples of delayed warnings for the worst-hit towns of Kinglake and Marysville.
Most people died in the Kilmore East complex of fires that swept through Kinglake and other towns to Melbourne's north, and 113 people were killed in their homes.
Among other recommendations were: a single fire website with up-to-date and specific warnings in plain language; the use of a klaxon-type sound on radio and television; voluntary evacuations in extreme conditions; and ensuring the national landline and mobile phone warning system the Federal Government announced in April was ready by the next fire season.
There are proposed changes to the command structure, including greater cooperation between the fire authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment about jurisdiction and control, and changes to the state's relatively new Integrated Emergency Coordination Centre. Fire prediction and fire mappers should be given greater prominence in the state's command centre and incident control centres, after evidence that they were working in a back room on February 7 and were working on predictions of the Kilmore East fire in the hours before it struck Kinglake.
Counsel assisting Lisa Nichols said the so-called ''stay or go'' policy seemed relatively simple when encapsulated in the fire authority's description as ''prepare, stay and defend or leave early''.
However, she said it belied the ''considerable complexity'' community members had to deal with when making their decisions and enforcing their plans, and recommended significant changes to the policy rather than scrapping it altogether.
The policy allowed little flexibility in case residents' plans failed, she said.
The commissioners, led by former Supreme Court judge Bernard Teague, will make an interim report next month, with more evidence and a final report not due for 12 months.