Willaura Health Care fire evacuation successful

Willaura Health Care has been praised by the Department of Health for the success of the Christmas night evacuation of patients and residents from Willaura to the Ararat Campus of East Grampians Health Service as the Yarram Gap fire threatened the township.

The smooth ‘text book’ evacuation by staff ensured 12 aged care residents and patients were moved with minimal disruption and distress.

EGHS Director of Clinical Services Peter Armstrong said the health service first became aware of fires on the east side of the Grampians following lightning strikes on December 16.

“Initially the fires were restricted to the more remote part of the park but as the wind and heat increased over the next week or so it quickly spread,” he said.

“This coupled with tinder dry conditions meant that any fire would be difficult to contain once out of the park.”

EGHS has well practiced processes in place as part of its business continuity planning, which includes summer preparedness for both sites with clear plans of action in emergency situations. There are different actions for both the Ararat and Willaura campuses, with a significantly lower threshold to evacuate the Willaura campus if needed.

Mr Armstrong said leading up to Christmas EGHS had been meeting with the Emergency Management Team from the Department of Health on a regular basis, who were part of the State Incident Management team and for this event the Incident Control Centre was based in Horsham.

“We had a plan in place to evacuate Willaura on the advice of the ICC and bring all residents to Ararat, if required,” he said.

“The twelve residents could be housed safely in the Inpatient Unit supported by Willaura staff. Three buses were placed at Willaura over this period, and this had been communicated to residents, their families and staff at both campuses. One resident who was in palliative care was transferred to Ararat a few days earlier after discussion with her and her family.”

The forecast for the week of Christmas was for high temperatures and strong winds especially on Boxing Day.

EGHS planned to leave the residents in place to enjoy Christmas Day and move them on the morning of Boxing Day, which was communicated to the Incident Controller and the Department of Health leading up to Christmas.

However, on Christmas afternoon with the weather deteriorating and fire breaking control lines and moving out of the park EGHS decided to evacuate Willaura Christmas night.

Contacts were notified, staff informed, and all residents were safely in Ararat by 8pm Christmas night, importantly accompanied by familiar staff.

Mr Armstrong said the evacuation provided a unique opportunity for EGHS to activate the emergency management and evacuation procedures in the event of a large bushfire and stage three evacuation of the entire facility.

“It gave us the opportunity to continually improve our processes and capabilities for responding to incidents in this area and also to look at our procedures for evacuating our residents and patients to safety,” he said.

The residents and patients were cared for by Willaura staff in the Inpatient Unit for five days before being safely relocated back to the Willaura Campus when the threat of fire had subsided.

“Thank you to all staff involved in the evacuation of our residents and patients,” Mr Armstrong said.

“They remained calm and carried out the evacuation efficiently, all while ensuring our residents and patients were cared for with compassion.”