The chief minister of the ACT during the 2003 bushfires has defended emergency services workers from what he sees as unfair criticism over their response to the disaster.
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"Their reputations were traduced but they did their best," Jon Stanhope said as the 20th anniversary of the catastrophe approaches.
In the fires on January 18, 2003, 70 per cent of the ACT was burned. Four people died, another 435 people were injured, 487 homes were destroyed, 23 government or commercial buildings were destroyed, including the Mount Stromlo Observatory.
The response of the emergency services at the time was said to be too little and too late. The argument was that if the fire had been tackled earlier it would not have exploded into the catastrophe it became.\
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Warnings to the public should have been made earlier, it was alleged.
At the time, angry residents and media commentators questioned the absence of fire crews from many fire hotspots, and the emergency planning which allowed the fires to jump into the city limits.
There were also allegations that a lack of communication between the authorities in NSW and the ACT meant the response wasn't adequate.
But Mr Stanhope is unhappy about what he sees as a public need to find someone to blame.
"If you want to blame anyone for the disaster, I was the chief minister," he said. "Blame me."
In a revealing interview on the ABC, he said that he was "tough" but he didn't "carry extensive guilt".
He said the fire was "beyond expectations". He felt that officials and fire-fighters did their best.
In 2020, the ACT coroner Maria Doogan wrote after her inquiry into the fires that they would "remain in the consciousness of the ACT community as a day of tragedy, a day of bravery, and a day of loss for many people".
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Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
