On the anniversary of Black Saturday, it seemed important to hear the stories of some of those who survived.

These brave souls spoke of their ordeals in a documentary that aired on ABC1 last night: Inside the Firestorm: one year on. It made for harrowing viewing.

If you were looking for a reason for the high number of fatalities on that day, you might have found it in several of the survivors’ stories.

They talked of tuning in to local ABC radio and of consulting the CFA website. In times of bushfire, we’ve been told, these are the most reliable media by which we can gauge the level of danger.

But alerts from CFA H.Q. to the ABC were sent out too late and the official CFA website carried nothing at all. An urgent threat message had been composed, it just never made it out in time.

Hopefully the 2009Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission will eventually reveal reasons for these failures in communication.

In light of that debacle, the state’s emergency services have promised to issue future urgent threat messages by landline, mobile phone and SMS.

The problem with that strategy is that in rural areas mobile phone coverage is usually patchy at best. So you might as well dismiss the last two options.

And if you aren’t at home to receive a message on your landline, what then? A message on your answer machine, perhaps? It could be hours before you hear it.

On February 7 it seems that many people were inside their homes, taking shelter from the intense heat and gale-force wind. Like us, they were watching television.

Why were no urgent threat messages issued to television networks for broadcast in areas about to be impacted by fire?

If TV networks can air commercials for local businesses within their broadcast areas, surely they can air urgent threat messages. How long does it take for a TV station to produce a superimposed message and air it? Not long, I think.

Emergency services have more ways of communicating than ever before. Why none of these was effectively used on February 7 is a question for which many of us need an answer. Preferably before it’s too late.