Coroner to probe blaze death

The bungled handling of the blaze which claimed the life of Albany firefighter Wendy Bearfoot four years ago will be probed by the WA coroner at an inquest set down for later this year.

Ms Bearfoot, a 45-year-old mother of three, died after suffering burns to 76 per cent of her body after she and colleagues were trapped in a burnover fighting the Black Cat Creek fire in October 2012.

A major incident review into the blaze found Ms Bearfoot and fellow DEC employees were not warned about a “significant wind change” due to a City of Albany representative failing to transmit an entire spot-fire weather forecast identifying severe weather and the arrival of the forecast south-westerly wind change to the incident management team.

When the wind changed the intensifying blaze approached two DEC crews from behind and gave them “little time to take cover” and trapped in the “dead-man zone”.

The review also found likelihood of the tragedy may have been reduced with “greater involvement” and “greater inter-agency co-ordination” of all three agencies, City of Albany, DEC and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services.

A review by the State’s workplace safety watchdog ordered greater safeguards for firefighters across the State after the two DEC vehicles stalled, one crew were not able to access individual fire blankets and neither crew were able to activate their vehicle protection sprays.

Ms Bearfoot became isolated from her three colleagues who had huddled under one blanket, the report told.

The City of Albany and Department of Environment and Conservation were issued notices by Worksafe relating to inadequate safety equipment and training which have since been acted on.

The inquest is set down from October 31 to November 4, in Albany.