News Service from House Harris

Vic: Roads won't cope with evacuation, residents want more info

MELBOURNE, May 18 AAP - Victoria's roads simply would not cope with a massive evacuation during a bushfire, the royal commission into the Black Saturday disaster has been told.

The stay and defend, or leave early policy has come under intense scrutiny during hearings into the February 7 fires.

On Monday, Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin said the state's infrastructure would not cope with any move to a mandatory evacuation system like the one used in California.

"The road network in Victoria certainly wouldn't support that sort of a huge scale leaving," Mr Esplin said, adding that fires could have started anywhere in conditions like Black Saturday.

"The Great Ocean Road, the Dandenong Tourist Road, the Kinglake-Whittlesea road ... they are not meant for huge numbers of traffic in that sort of situation.

"It would have been an enormous challenge to evacuate the whole of the state in the lead up period and I'm not sure it could have been done."

He stressed the onus was on the individual to decide whether to stay and defend or get out early, before the fire threatened.

He also noted that in California, where evacuations are mandatory, there were freeways "log-jammed" with cars and 22 people still died in the 2003 fires.

Meanwhile, a second Black Saturday survivor has called for danger ratings to be issued to the public.

Kenneth Rogers told the commission the decision to leave would be made easier if fire danger ratings were available.

Mr Rogers and his family survived the blaze but watched helplessly as it consumed their St Andrews home.

He said he'd made the decision to stay and defend his property 20 years ago.

But had he known the extent of the fire threat on February 7, which hit 328 on a fire danger index of 100, he said he would have left.

Mr Rogers had a fire plan and was prepared, with a water pump, tanks and mops and buckets on standby, but they were of no use against the ferocity of the flames.

Within two minutes of seeing the first spot fire in a neighbour's paddock, the fire front was upon them and he and his wife and adult son huddled inside.

"It became clear after about eight minutes that the house was already on fire, much to our amazement, and was starting to fill with smoke," he said.

The trio sought refuge in a car while the house burned.

Mr Rogers said the fire danger index would have given them a better idea what they were up against.

"There was certainly no indication that we were going to be confronted with the fire of the ferocity and speed that we did face, none at all," he told the commission.

"I think it would be vitally important to tell people what that (fire danger index) is going to be, because it gives people a much better idea of whether they should stay or whether they should go."

Kinglake mother of two Jesse Odgers made similar remarks to the commission last week.