Alpine resorts warned to be fire ready

Alpine resort residents and visitors are being urged to ensure they know how to evacuate from their accommodation when a fire breaks out.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is working with resort owners and operators in the region's three main resorts, to ensure the alpine community is well protected and prepared in case of fire.

The CFA acting operations manager, Mark Owens, says it can take several minutes for a brigade to arrive at the scene of a fire.

He says the three CFA brigades at the resorts are staffed by volunteers and they rely on the generosity of their employers to let them go when a fire call comes through.

"The resorts are quite large and they could be in anything from bar work to working with the ski lift companies and from the time that they take from when they get the call to respond to the fire station and respond to [a] CFA appliance, it can take quite a number of minutes and that could mean life or death to people," he said.

"We want to just make sure that in the first instance people look after themselves and get themselves out safely."

Source: ABC News, 21 June 2013