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TWO firefighters involved in the ground battle against the Harrietville blaze on the day it claimed two lives say concerns they raised about safety fell on deaf ears.
Edan Brennan and Scott Stow yesterday both told coroner John Olle that they had never before been in a position where it appeared that their superiors had ign-ored them.
Katie Peters and Steven Kadar were in a firefighting utility, known as a slip on, on February 13 last year when a tree fell on their vehicle, killing them instantly.
The fire was sparked by lightning on January 21 and eventually burnt 37,000 hectares during 55 days.
Mr Brennan, a field services officer with the Department of Sustainability and Environment at Tallangatta, told of a near-miss more than two weeks before the double fatality.
Mr Brennan said a dead Alpine Ash tree had come down within 30 centimetres of the vehicle of a member of the Mitta crew on January 28.
He filled out an incident report card, known as a “salmon card”, but told Mr Olle yesterday that on the day, he did not feel he had been taken seriously.
Mr Brennan and Mr Stow, who is based at Benalla, told Mr Olle that burnt and dead Alpine Ash was unpredictable and extremely dangerous.
Mr Brennan said the key message from training in working in a fire environment with Alpine Ash was that crews should never be working downhill from it, and that the Harrietville firefight breached some “golden rules”.
On February 13, Mr Brennan was operating a dozer in a side cut, with Alpine Ash above him and his crew. After seeing a tree that had fallen across a trail, Mr Brennan radioed his concerns to supervisor Owen Lord.
“I also passed up that I believed it would be too dangerous to have crews in there on foot, and we would have a lot of trouble in being able to hold and control the line,” Mr Brennan said.
“Steven Kadar backed up my concerns on the radio from where he was working.
“After the radio conversation, I had the impression that my concerns fell on deaf ears.”