A POLICEMAN who helped evacuate hundreds of people from Marysville minutes before fire engulfed the town has allegedly been called before a disciplinary committee for submitting his own statement to the Bushfires Royal Commission.
Counsel for the commission Melinda Richards said Senior Constable Ken Dwight had advised lawyers that he had been called to a disciplinary interview for an alleged breach relating to the fact that his submission was made on a Victoria Police letterhead.
When she asked Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe whether he knew about the incident, Mr Walshe said he did not.
When she asked Mr Walshe if it worried him a member who had raised matters that concerned him might be subject to an internal disciplinary process, counsel for the State Government Garry Livermore interjected, saying there was no evidence to support such a claim.
Ms Richards said evidence supporting the claim would be presented next week.
Mr Walshe told the commission that police were informed that they had "nothing to fear" from the commission and were encouraged to make submissions through the Victoria Police royal commission liaison unit. He said he thought it was reasonable that the organisation should be aware of what its members had to say.
Senior Constable Dwight runs the one-man station at Woods Point, south of Jamieson. He is also a union delegate.
On February 7, he volunteered to help police in Marysville and was at the tail-end of a convoy that evacuated 200 people to Alexandra minutes before fire destroyed Marysville.
At the time, Senior Constable Dwight and his colleagues were hailed as heroes by those they saved. Senior Constable Dwight would not comment to The Age last night.
Ian Hill, QC, for the Police Association of Victoria, earlier told the commission that a member was informed he might face an offence under section 127A of the Police Regulation Act. This refers to the expectation that no member make unauthorised use of, access or disclose information learned through the course of their work unless it is their duty to do so.
Mr Walshe named that member as Senior Constable Dwight.
The 10th day of hearings for the royal commission also heard from fire behaviour expert Kevin Tolhurst, who said the delay in producing information predicting the spread of fire on Black Saturday was "unacceptable".
Dr Tolhurst was based at the main control centre in Melbourne on February 7 and, with two others, was busy producing maps predicting the spread of fires that burned that day.
The commission heard that his team received a request to produce a prediction map for the Kilmore East fire at 2pm. The fire was ignited at 11.21am.
A draft report of the fire's progress was ready by 4.52pm, but Dr Tolhurst said the request for a map should have been made much earlier.
"I think the information needs to be available within a one to two-hour period," he said.
The commission continues.
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