Review of Australian Bushfires

[abercrombie]

From theysaid 10/6/09

From OB, From Australia:

G'day all!

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has published a report which may have some relevance to Ice Capping.

Initial overview can be found at www.bushfirecrc.com/news/slots2.html. I assume the US fire weather forecasters are aware of this. For mine it seems to explain the column collapse that I've seen referenced in earlier posts.

Regards

OB
from OZ

[abercrombie]

from theysaid 10/6/09:

Thanks OB from OZ-

I went ahead and found the articles from Australian Meteorolgy Magazine about this study, it was published in
2 parts, I didn't get a chance to read them- but here they are if others want to read them.

www.bom.gov.au/amm/200804/mills1.pdf

www.bom.gov.au/amm/200804/mills2.pdf

Stringtown

[abercrombie]

from theysaid 10/9/09:

from OZ - new DANGER WARNING SYSTEM

Abs,

Following the tragedy in Victoria earlier in the year it has been decided to change the fire danger warning system across Australia. (It appears that stinking hot temperatures, gales force winds & a lack of rain are obvious enough signs...).

The message "Wait until the fire is on top of you, and you may die" = <tick>. It's about time we stopped being warm and fuzzy.

The craziest thing I heard after the initial report was from a resident in one of the towns that got razed. It went something like "I always knew there was extreme fire danger, but now I know there the Forest Fire Danger Index that tells me just how extreme it really is". <WTF?!>

The attachment better explains the new standards, as do the following videos which have been put out.

Links:

* Bush Fire Survival Plan - NSW Rural Fire Service TVC
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsHOrYOrjDw&feature=sdig&et=1254423776.69
* Survive - NSW Rural Fire Service TVC
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62UlcTQHBg&feature=sdig&et=1254423776.69
* Act - NSW Rural Fire Service TVC
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6W17b76Jh8&feature=sdig&et=1254423776.69
* Prepare - NSW Rural Fire Service TVC
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tbsxqvvJYM&feature=sdig&et=1254423776.69
* Prepare - NSW Rural Fire Service TVC
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tbsxqvvJYM&feature=sdig&et=1254423776.69
* Rebel Talbert www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UmvyAORCao

Cheers

OB

Operational Brief New Bush Fire Changes for Coming Season.pdf (530 K pdf file)

[abercrombie]

from theysaid 10/31/09:

From Australia:

Abs,

www.abc.net.au/catalyst/bushfires/

A review of some of the work that is being done by the Bushfire CRC (presented in a science orientated
programme). Well worth a watch. I particularly found the part relating to decision making very interesting
& probably spot on.

Regards

OB

[GA Peach]

This is all over the international airwaves...

Is the chief a scapegoat for this tragedy or really to blame for lack of leadership? If he lacks in leadership, how about changing the qualifications for the position of Fire Chief? There seem to be lots of parallels of this case to US firestorm tragedies with the blame game.

How about Lessons Learned? I guess that would be the recommendations of the Commission...

http://www.nbc26.com/Global/story.asp?S=12361523

Fire chief in deadly Australian wildfires resigns
Posted: Apr 22, 2010 10:52 PM PDT Updated: Apr 22, 2010 10:53 PM PDT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The fire chief during deadly 2009 wildfires that killed 173 people in southeastern Australia resigned Friday in the wake of criticism that he failed to take an active role in managing the response to the disaster.

Russell Rees, chief of Victoria state's Country Fire Authority, had been sharply criticized by the Bushfires Royal Commission, set up to study what went wrong during Australia's worst-ever fires on Feb. 7, 2009. The panel concluded that Rees failed to protect Victorians and was not actively involved in organizing the firefight.

"Mr. Rees did not appear to become actively involved in operational issues, even when the disastrous consequences of the fires began to emerge," the commission said in an interim report last August. "There was no one person in charge."

Rees, who had more than a year left in his contract, said he was clearing the way for a new chief to implement changes to the organization.

"I am making the decision to go now so that the future of CFA is assured," Rees told reporters. His resignation is effective in June, at the end of the current fire season.

When asked about his mistakes on the day known as Black Saturday, Rees said those issues were a matter for the commission.

He said a new chief should be involved from the start in implementing any recommendations from the commission's final report, due at the end of July.

"It would be inappropriate for me to stay on and then leave halfway through what I see as being a major change period that will come out of the recommendations at the end of the commission," Rees said.

On Black Saturday, hundreds of fires raged across southeastern Australia as temperatures soared and powerful winds whipped blazes into firestorms. But the scale of the disaster deeply shocked Australia, where hundreds of wildfires scorch vast areas of forest and farmland every summer but rarely cause deaths.

The commission has also found that communications and other failures hampered efforts to fight the fires, and its findings have already prompted changes to laws and new procedures to try to cope with future events.

fair use disclaimer

[2112]

Originally Posted by abercrombie

From theysaid 10/6/09

From OB, From Australia:

G'day all!

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has published a report which may have some relevance to Ice Capping.

Initial overview can be found at www.bushfirecrc.com/news/slots2.html. I assume the US fire weather forecasters are aware of this. For mine it seems to explain the column collapse that I've seen referenced in earlier posts.

Regards

OB
from OZ

I read the article and thought: "Um...can you say Santa Ana Condition or subsidence?"

[Tahoe Terrie]

Australia to have a Centralized National Arsonist Database

http://www.thegovmonitor.com/economy...rum-30152.html

Australia Highlights 2010 National Bushfire Arson Forum
Source: Government of Australia Posted on: 5th May 2010

Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, and Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, today announced new initiatives to combat deliberately lit fires as part of the second annual ‘National Forum for the Prevention of Bushfire Arson’.

The Attorney-General established the Forum in 2009 to promote more effective and collaborative means of preventing and deterring bushfire arson.

Today’s meeting brought together more than 40 police, fire agency officers, and arson specialists from around the country.

Arson is a major threat to the Australian community, with up to half of all bushfires being deliberately lit or starting in suspicious circumstances. In addition to the massive human toll that fires can take, it is estimated that arson in all its forms costs the Australian community approximately $1.6 billion each year.

The key to reducing and preventing bushfire arson is maximising cooperation between fire agencies, police, social services, the criminal justice system and all levels of Government.

The Rudd Government today announced a number of important and practical initiatives to promote national collaboration in combating bushfire arson, including:

* establishing a centralised national database of convicted and suspected arsonists;

* investing in the development of a ‘Bushfire Arson Investigation Course’ to build the expertise of arson investigators across the country; and

* launching a ‘Bushfire Arson Prevention Manual’, developed by the Australian Institute of Criminology, to help local communities develop strategies to prevent arson.

A centralised national database of arsonists will provide local authorities with access to up-to-date information on arsonists which may be used to direct intervention strategies at times of high risk.

The Bushfire Arson Prevention Manual will also become an important reference used by local organisations, fire agencies and the police, when developing community based bushfire and arson prevention strategies.

Today’s Forum demonstrates the ongoing commitment of Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments to work together to prevent and deter arson through a coordinated and nationally agreed framework.

fair use disclaimer if needed; this was a govt release

[2112]

While on the Butte complex in '08 I had the honor of working with a few fellows from Australia and New Zealand. We talked alot about the similarities and differences of how our respective countries fight our fires and how we expect the public to "act" (for loss of a better term).

One of the biggest contrasts was that in Australia they recommend a shelter-in-place policy for most fires. This, honestly, shocked me. Not that it was stupid but because we in the US favor an evacuation and even go so far as to force evacuation.

I do not question the shelter-in-place policy but wonder if evacuation might have saved some lives in the Black Saturday incidents.

Thoughts?

[abercrombie]

Some other threads that came up when I searched on Australia and "shelter in place".

Stay and Defend in SoCal
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/...+shelter+place

Shelter in Place during wildfire
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/...+shelter+place

Brothers' backfire saves family compound in Big Sur
http://www.wildlandfire.com/hotlist/...+shelter+place

[OB1309]

The Royal Commission has finished its hearings.

Submissions and transcripts can be found on the website http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/Home.

Note some of them take a while to download.

Stay or Go policy has come under intense scrutiny, as have the executives of the response agencies.

Not sure of date of final submission, but will notify in due course.

OB