VC winner joins fight against bushfires

Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith is urging Australians to be prepared to fight bushfires. Source: AAP

VICTORIA Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith knows something about preparing for a fight.

Now the West Australian war hero has urged residents across his home state to get ready to battle bushfires this summer, with warnings of an horrendous fire season to come.

An unusually wet winter has increased growth of fuel in bushfire-prone areas in WA, with only 45,000 hectares of the state's prescribed burn target of 200,000 hectares carried out.

On the first day of the summer, the campaign headed by Roberts-Smith - taglined 'Are You Ready?' - was launched in Perth.

"He is a very dignified, significant achiever in the Australian community and people know when he talks he is something worth listening to," said emergency services minister Joe Francis.

"We are basically in the hands of the lottery that is handed out by mother nature. So there is going to be a number of significant challenges this season.

"So we are urging people to make sure their property is as fire-ready as possible."

That preparedness includes clearing around properties, ensuring insurance is up to date, making a proper survival plan, and investing in a generator and an independent water supply to defend homes.

The state government spruiked its own readiness with the state's aerial water bombing fleet consisting of 22 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Electricity provider Western Power is spending $250 million on bushfire mitigation to prepare for the fire season, including $180 million on pole replacements and vegetation management.

But the state's Fire Commissioner Wayne Gregson has already said councils were failing to properly train and resource volunteer fire brigades.

The opposition have claimed the government's call for "shared responsibility" is really about shifting responsibility from a government which hasn't done enough preparation themselves.

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