Fire truck safety upgrade complete

The State Government has ensured Department of Parks and Wildlife firefighters faced with the catastrophic situation of a burnover will be protected after the final safety upgrade was implemented to the region's fire trucks.

Worksafe issued 10 improvement notices following the tragic Black Cat Creek fire in October 2012, which claimed the life of mother of three Wendy Bearfoot.

The Department of Environment and Conservation worker became trapped in a burnover after crews were not warned about a "significant wind change".

The safeguards for firefighters, ordered as a result of the blaze by the State's workplace safety watchdog, included heat shields, water spray protection for vehicles, and lagging to protect critical electrical and mechanical equipment.

The crews caught in the burnover at Two Peoples Bay could not access their petrol-powered pump to extinguish their vehicles and a DEC truck stalled "most probably through an electrical alert" because of the intense heat.

A Major Incident Review into the fire in September last year found the stranded DEC crews had no in-cab radiant heat shields.

Widower Garry Bearfoot had called for immediate equipment upgrades following the death of his wife, with the rollout criticised by the State Opposition last year.

The first truck fitted with a $10,000 truck spray protection system was unveiled in Albany last Friday, with the full fleet of 110 vehicles to be fitted with the system by September, according to the State Government.

The truck spray protection system uses water from the truck's tank to protect the whole vehicle, including the cab, for up to five minutes in the event of an entrapment or burnover situation.

Environment Minister Albert Jacob said he had been in contact with the Bearfoot family throughout the process of the safety upgrades being implemented. "It's important to stress that these are absolute last minute emergency safety items, our first priority is not to have fire crews in a burnover incident … in the event of some catastrophic changes … this is why we have the heat curtains, this is why we have the lagging and … these deluge systems," he said.