The Department of Education has defended the move to relocate Halls Gap Primary School on Wednesday due to forecast fire danger conditions.
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In a letter to parents and carers earlier this week, Halls Gap Primary School principal Ja-San Trimble said the school would relocate to Halls Gap Community Hall on December 13 due to “a Severe/Extreme Fire Danger rating day being forecast for our area”.
A department spokesperson said there was there is no higher priority than the safety and well-being of students and staff.
“Halls Gap Primary School has been assessed by the Department as being at highest risk and the principal has decided to activate the school's relocation plan due to local fire conditions being rated as severe,” the spokesperson said.
“Earlier this year the school worked with the local community and emergency services to identify a safe relocation place, and the local Community Hall in the central shopping area was identified as the most suitable.
“The school teaching program will continue as normal in the relocated setting.”
The school is expected to re-open on December 14, when conditions are predicted to improve.
Some parents commented on social media that the relocation was an overreaction and one argued that the Halls Gap Community Hall was itself a fire risk as it was near a petrol station and gas storage tanks.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast that Halls Gap will reach a maximum of 36 degrees on Wednesday, with temperatures exceeding 30 by 11am.
Northerly and north-northwesterly winds of up to 35 kilometers per hour were forecast between 8am and 5pm.
As of 12pm on Wednesday, Halls Gap had experienced temperatures of 35.1 degrees and a NNW wind of 30kph.
A total fire ban has been declared in the Wimmera and Mallee districts for Wednesday.
Country Fire Authority District 16 operations manager Neville Collins said there would be a very high fire danger throughout the whole day.
In January 2014, emergency services took the rare step of urging Halls Gap residents to evacuate as the town came under threat from a bushfire in the Grampians National Park.
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