submission to the cronstedt review of the 2018-19 ... robertson.pdf · photographer, and ive been...
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Submission to the Cronstedt Review of the 2018-19 Tasmanian
Bushfires
By Amy Robertson
Dear Mr Cronstedt and team,
At home on the 15th January 2019, I prepared my storm-sensitive children for the arrival of
thunder and lightning as forecast.
Hubby and I are both fire-experienced foresters and stay in touch with the weather through
summer, and recognising the startling fear brought by flashes and rumbles to our younger
children, we’ve made a family tradition of serving popcorn and being together to watch the
‘performance’.
Happily my husband arrived home from his forestry work as the first rumbles approached,
allowing us to support the children outside and encourage a raindance as the first raindrops
fell. We moved to cover to watch across the river at Port Huon as the storm moved over and
east of us, seeing lightning strike nearby and explaining to the kids how little rain was
forecast and there was potential for fires to begin. Almost on cue, one child asked if that
was smoke rising over there – it wasn’t, but just a little further round it was, and then
another and another. As we marvelled at being able to watch three fire ignitions from home
and demonstrate the theory we’d been teaching, Dad phoned work and offered his services.
And so it began.
I’m a little emotional because I care about this place, its land and community. And because
using my experience, connections and capacity, I was able to develop a viewpoint that
reached across both emergency response and community reaction. From that viewpoint I
saw both success and failures, and using my professionalism in governance I’m very
concerned that a constructive culture of communication, transparency and accountability
must inform the way our government, businesses and community learn from these
successes and failures to improve what we do next time.
Following I will outline a number of key points that I believe deserve response, either as
successes that should be recognised and supported to bring opportunity, or as failures that
should generate improvements to policy and processes to reduce future risk.
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1. First response suppression of Riveaux fire
I’m aware of at least three independent accounts of the initial location and behaviour of
the ignition point that was to become the Riveaux Road fire (“Riveaux fire”), each
indicating that the fire could have been initially contained and suppressed successfully
using a small number of resources.
Account #1 – anonymous professional firefighter
The first account comes from a professional firefighter tasked to attend the fire reported
from Tahune airwalk on the evening of 15/1 (I’ll call this day 0). The firefighter was
apparently stood down past the airwalk and within sight of the fire’s glow, because of
darkness, to end the day’s shift.
Returning first thing the next morning (day 1, 16/1) the firefighter was unable to drive
beyond a locked Parks gate on Riveuax Rd and walked in to GPS, photograph and assess
the full fire perimeter. The fire behaviour was very quiet, and apparently reporting to
supervisors recommended tasking of a dozer and excavator (to access boggy perimeter
areas where a dozer would otherwise get stuck), with control entirely feasible.
The firefighter returned to check the fire on day 2 (17/1) and found increased fire
behaviour with crowns intermittently flaring up in the standing forest adjacent the
coupe, and was unable to directly access this part of the fire’s perimeter. While there a
Parks crew also arrived to assess the fire.
On day 3 (18/1) the firefighter visited again, and observed crews from multiple agencies
on their first day suppressing the fire. The fire had grown again and containment would
now be more difficult.
Account #2 - Social media (Facebook) reports by “Luuk Veltkamp”
An aerial image published on social media (attributed to Par Avion pilot Luuk Veltkamp)
and described as being taken on “the morning of the lightning strikes” at “3 hours old”
shows smoke coming from a small area in a logged coupe and the adjacent standing tall
wet forest (figure 1). I’m estimating this photo was taken at around 0900 hrs on day 1,
making the fire around 16 hours old (given multiple reports of the glow visible from
Tahune and other viewpoints the previous night).
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Figure 1 LuukVeltkamp Facebook photo, approx 0900hrs day1.
Flames are not visible thus indicating mild fire behaviour in both the greened-up
regeneration area and the adjacent forest canopy. Smoke is rising vertically from several
points indicating a lack of wind and supporting a low intensity fire (heat from a hotter
fire would tend to draw the columns together and propel smoke upward rather than
letting it diffuse as is pictured).
Interestingly I’ve seen the publisher of this image write that this image of the fire was “in
a regen prepared coupe which burnt hot and showered embers downwind”, attributing
the cause of rapid fire spread to “Forestry” and to “harvested coupes”.
I’ve easily been able to use Google maps to identify this location as being at lat/long -
43.115501, 146.693396 in the Picton Valley (figure 2).
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Figure 2 Google map showing approximate location of figure 1's smoke
The LIST shows this location as clearly being in World Heritage Area (figure 3).
Figure 3 LIST map of fire origin coupe with World Heritage Area overlaid.
I haven’t been able to find a coupe number for the logged coupe, but my understanding
of this area’s land management is such that I know this coupe was logged by then
Forestry Tasmania prior to the 2013 change of tenure to World Heritage Area under the
Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, with funding for its regeneration given to
Environment Tasmania. I believe that the reason enough fuel still existed to burn
among the greening-up regeneration of the coupe is that it was likely burnt to an
‘environmental’ regeneration specification by the new land manager. This would have
yielded a cooler fire intensity, lower percentage of receptive seedbed and greater
remaining debris load than if it had received the normal high-intensity silvicultural burn
prescribed through original planning. It may also have likely breached smoke emission
guidelines and caused pollution for communities downwind at the time.
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Account #3 – social media image (unattributed)
The image in figure 4 was republished on social media by someone other than the
photographer, and I’ve been unable to find out who the photographer was (apologies
to them). It was reported as being of Riveaux fire smoke on day 1, and the image shows
a smoke column consistent with the fire behaviour reported in accounts #1 and #2. I
believe the track is part of the fire trail around the Tahune plain (south of the airwalk),
with Pear Hill seen in the background.
Figure 4 Unattributed photo of fire on day 1.
Other accounts
I have also heard other accounts thirdhand which support the information I’ve received
from those three more direct accounts. I hope some of these will also come to your
Review.
Analysis
My experience at firefighting and IMT planning tells me that based on the initial fire
behaviour, this fire could have easily been contained through a boundary trail and initial
water application to flames, by the end of day 1. That would not have guaranteed
continued control of the fire, or safety of the Huon Valley from fires emerging from
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further west in the WHA, but this ignition point had road access, manageable fuel loads
and favourable weather conditions for control.
Why did it take 3 days for Parks suppression crews to arrive? I can guess some possible
answers:
- Failure of the communication pathway between firefighters on the ground doing
reconnaissance and the Cambridge inter-agency IMT, leaving decision-makers
for resource tasking unaware of the information (GPS, photos, resource
recommendations) from the ground.
- Inaccurate information considered by Cambridge IMT: did initial Par Avion
reconnaissance advise the IMT incorrectly that Riveaux fire was “in a forestry
coupe”, leading to an assumption that STT would deal with suppression? Did the
IMT consider that the fire’s location in ‘far-off’ WHA gave it a lower priority for
response given the greater distance of WHA from assets (yet not the airwalk)?
- Prioritisation by Parks of Parks asset protection: I understand that Parks crews
were first response (day 1?) to a PTPZ (STT land) fire near Hastings Caves
Reserve and contributed significant work to that containment, perhaps with
concern over the threat to Hastings Caves Visitor Centre infrastructure.
- Cambridge IMT would have been under intense pressure from going fires in
other parts of the state as well as new ignitions, did Riveaux fire’s tasking exceed
the capacity of the IMT?
I’m really looking forward to your Review’s findings on this point.
1. Rostering crews and/or IMT staff at times vital for fire response
The benefit of hindsight allows us to understand that the Riveaux fire behaved ‘lazily’: it
didn’t tend to do its spreading until late in the day. This point is about the timing of
resource deployment, both during early days and later in the fire campaign.
I understand that during the early days of suppression work, crews would leave a quiet,
contained fire at the end of the day’s shift but come back the next morning to find it had
slopped over a tracked boundary, leading to more containment work and meaning the
blacking out never got completed to strengthen the perimeter. Some even speculated
that an arsonist might be visiting in the night to help the fire cross its containment line.
There are several factors that might explain this ‘lazy’ or ‘late’ behaviour.
- Heavy fuels in wet forests have a lag time in their drying, so that fuel moisture is
often lowest after the hottest and driest afternoon period. (Foresters use this to
assist in burns with more difficult boundaries, which are often lit late in the day.)
When those heavy fuels do get burning, they generate intense heat capable of
convection and ember spread.
- In the Huon the prevailing NW winds are often ‘held back’ or even reversed by an
afternoon SE sea breeze, but can ramp back up late in the day or overnight as the
katabatic effect kicks in.
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- With heavy fuels in wet forest, the wetting down of suppression can dry or soak
away in a few hours and allow fuels to reignite, especially in low humidity.
Fires don’t respect rosters or shift lengths.
The worst example I saw of this was on 25/1, when on the third hot dangerous day in a
row crews were stood down at 1730-1800 hrs with the fire at West Creek calm and a
cooler forecast for the next day. Geeveston residents had been briefed in the preceeding
days to leave if possible, and to expect evacuations if the fire crossed east of the Arve
River.
At 1930 hrs I observed a significant column of fast-rising and clear-edged smoke to the
west of my home in Port Huon (figure 5). This was much closer than the uncontained
southern boundary in the Picton valley. Taking a compass bearing and visiting a nearby
vantage point on Doodys Hill Rd (figure 6), I estimated that the smoke was coming from
east of the Arve River as the fire ran up drier NW-facing slopes towards Bennetts Ridge,
perhaps even burning the plain at Willies Saddle to generate such a column at this time
of night. (I remember Willies Saddle plain burning in an evening fire in March 2005,
which began from an escaped coupe burn.)
Figure 5 Smoke column at 20:13 on 25/1 from Port Huon
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Figure 6 Smoke column at 20:44 on 25/1 from Doodys Hill Rd
My guess was confirmed by a local friend who drove out to check and found that plain
alight. He stopped at the Geeveston fire station where some local crews were and was
told that crews were aware but they’d not received any tasking advice from TFS.
I understand that tasking the next morning was in complete disarray because of the
fire’s completely new location, having travelling more than 5km to now directly threaten
private property assets around Oigles Rd. A couple of snapshots from Sentinel show the
change in location and size before and after that run.
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Figure 7 Sentinel 0528 hrs 25/1/19
Figure 8 Sentinel 0748 hrs 26/1/19
Evening or night field presence wasn’t the only problem, as I understand that morning
despatch was often delayed as crews waited for maps to be printed or tasking to be
refined. IMT input into these tasks should occur before field crews start their shifts, with
Situation Officers debriefing sector or divisional commanders as they return from the
field to source intelligence not readily conveyed by radio communication (eg. sketches
on maps). This intelligence should then be compiled and integrated into the planned
strategy, resourcing and tasking for the next day, with Incident Action Plans printed for
pickup at briefing as shifts start.
At the Geeveston Community briefing on the afternoon of 26/1, I heard TFS officers
explain that their maps – for display to us and use by their field crews – were three days
old. I don’t believe that this is acceptable, for community or for the firefighters using
those maps.
A simple solution is a ‘swing shift’, or a late-start and late-finish day shift (I don’t believe
night shifts are used much in Tasmania, though perhaps at times they should be). Crews
coming in fresh at the hottest time of day can help support the early-starting day shift,
and can monitor, respond and prepare for the next day through the evening after that
core day shift finishes. The swing shift also provides a more targeted workforce for
evening backburning, which can be a better time to conduct these operations.
I also believe that morning rostering was problematic at times. I heard of sector
commanders providing up to 4 briefings to crews commencing at different times.
Startup of time-critical tasks such as firetrailling or backburn ignition was often
hampered by the travel time of crews to their task, or logistical delays. While the
coordination of logistics for complex operations like these will always be difficult, there
are ways to improve: roster an early start recce crew to check the fire is where it is
thought to be, despatch a road clearing crew to ensure machinery floats and crews can
get past trees that fell overnight to start a significant operation on time, have those IAPs
and maps already printed.
Another aspect is that until the fire arrived on Geeveston’s doorstep on 26/1, I saw very
little inter-agency IMT presence in the Huon. It looked like ‘forestry’ (STT) were left to
run the fire, with occasional visits from other agency staff representing some
communication from the Cambridge IMT.
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I know that it’s hard to get the full message across by radio or phone (eg. those map
scribbles captured by debrief of shift-end field staff), and that local knowledge is
invaluable in creating great strategy or planning. But with the IMT making important
decisions – like the 25/1 knockoff time and emergency warning alerts – I question
whether there was enough direct interaction and IMT support of local staff in the early
weeks of Riveaux fire.
2. Balancing use of local/imported resources
In later weeks of the Riveaux fire campaign, I saw greater use of experienced and locally-
familiar resources brought in on contract by the agencies. Many of these contractors
had formerly been part of the forest industry, so had experience in working with high
intensity fire and familiarity with local geography.
This yielded much greater effectiveness and safety. I heard of dozer operators requiring
less instruction and supervision because they already knew how to construct a
containment line (different to ordinary track-making). I heard of operations getting
better results because they already knew the site and understood its fire behaviour from
their history, needing less reconnaissance and implementing more effective solutions.
In contrast I did hear some stories of challenge around less experienced or local
resources:
- Crews unable to control a backburn escape because they couldn’t start a pump
on unfamiliar tankers (solution: familiarise with the equipment at shift start, and
practise before need arises).
- Inaccurate reconnaissance of fire extent when crews didn’t know where houses
were on a road (solution: recce your sector when first deployed and chat to
locals to pick up knowledge before the afternoon fire spread occurs).
- Dozer drivers/firefighters inexperienced with high intensity fire yet deployed to
edge attack (solution: maintain the availability of operators experienced in a
managed forest landscape).
- Control or fallback plans that weren’t consolidated in time to succeed (solution:
ensure resource availability and logistics can enable the success of a plan or
make a more realistic plan)
My experience as a forester tells me that we do need to manage our forests for fire, and
that in reducing or streamlining (for commercial efficiency) the resources available for
that task we increase the risk of harm. I think the worst thing about this Riveaux fire is
that the people most harmed by it are also the people who worked hardest – in
preparedness and response – to stop it; a double blow.
But I also think that one of the best things about this fire was the support that
responded to our displaced community, especially at the Huon Valley PCYC. Using local
and external resources, the care and connection provided to evacuees was amazing. We
must be ensure that the processes and resources that created this are recorded and
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remembered, so that we can do this again – perhaps more easily now we’ve had this
experience – next time someone needs this help.
3. Broad and longstanding emergency warning alerts
Over the Australia Day weekend in particular, my community in Geeveston was
subjected to the stress of a broad and longstanding emergency warning alert.
It’s absolutely better to be early than late (more on that below), but consecutive days of
minimal fire progress during this time undermined the credibility of the alert system for
some people, and led to complacency.
I understand that in the heavy smoke, the preferred methods of airborne
reconnaissance were not available to monitor fire extent and behaviour, and
supplementary methods such as Sentinel satellite sometimes gave inaccurate readings
(eg. ‘fire’ records where hot smoke rather than ground fire existed, or failure to measure
ground fire where covered by thick smoke).
But I suspect that more effective communication lines between field and IMT could have
allowed more use of field observations in decision-making and awareness of
strategy/scenario options for field staff. This could have generated more responsive,
specific alerts that decreased stress and improved confidence for the community, and
improved tasking for on-ground firefighters.
I mentioned lateness, and that relates to activity on 3/2, when the fire ran through the
Hermons Rd/Glocks Rd area south of Geeveston. I’m aware of fire impacting around at
least one house more than 30 minutes before the Watch & Act was upgraded to
Emergency. The warning’s upgrade occurred at least an hour after field crews went into
retreat from running fire. I believe that delay in those circumstances is unacceptable.
4. Inadequate TFS communication with staying residents
During the Riveaux fire campaign, I saw extensive use of the well-developed and
consistent TFS alert system. This system is designed to be high-level and risk-averse for
members of the public caught in a fire situation, as it should be.
But there will be some who stay – and during the Riveaux fire, we were not well
supported with information on fire location, expected behaviour, response strategy and
tasking.
Those well-prepared staying residents offer great benefit to the emergency services.
Each decreases the stretch for fire tankers as the flames come through, can provide
information to the many non-local crews, and are extra sets of eyes for fire behaviour
and extent (for a fire service receptive to this information). Yet to work effectively those
residents also need some information to maximise their preparedness and capacity.
As an example, being on emergency warning alert level would trigger preparedness in
my own fire plan of filling gutters and wetting down around the house. Yet maintaining
this through a campaign fire (let alone through consecutive days of unaltered maximum
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warning level) will quickly drain my water tanks and turn my asset protection into a
liability. In the absence of more precise alerts, I adapted to wetting down when
indicators of fire behaviour (temperature, wind, ash fall) were greater, or when I had
news of closer or more active fire behaviour. That news of indicators (via field weather
reporting not just forecasts) and fire behaviour was something staying residents needed
from TFS, and generally didn’t receive.
More detailed information could have been delivered in various ways:
- more frequent community meetings (road closures shouldn’t block agency or
Council assistance from access to communities or Nearby Safer Places)
- detailed daily newsletters posted on shop windows or noticeboards (eg. IMT’s
Communication Officer could include fireground weather forecasts, tasking
summary, key contact numbers & 3-day outlook).
- Written summary of community briefings for those who can’t stream the
excellent Facebook videos, as developed later in the campaign (stops the
inaccuracy that creeps into messages passed on verbally from attendees).
- Facilitated media reporting to get more ‘education’ about what work is being
done, not just ‘news developments’, into newsfeeds.
One success in this aspect was the establishment of community networks among those
who remained. Using phone, Facebook, messages or the wonderfully supportive “stop
and chat” method, our stay-and-defend community developed an understanding of who
was about, how we could help each other and what was coming. There is awesome
experience and capacity especially among the retirees and former land management
employees, farmers and their families.
I found myself making Facebook posts that shared my skilled interpretation of what
knowledge I had, and was humbled at the appreciation shown for that. (It’s worth
looking up my public Facebook posts at facebook.com/amy.robertson.3760430 to see
how I approached this and the responses, examples attached in figures 9 and 10).
Stayers used it, but also many evacuees had a yearning for information to counter the
disempowerment of being stranded away from home. I felt a little vulnerable and took
care to air my opinions in a way that maintained respect for overarching TFS advice, and
only had a couple of people challenge my perspective. One night I even had an
acquaintance say she knew I’d tell her to go when it was time – “no I will NOT,” I said,
and I hope her perspective changed after that.
28/1/19, 7:48AM Sentinel satellite hotspots this morning show heaps of possible fire activity in the hills behind Geeveston, Castle Forbes Bay, Franklin, Glen Huon, Judbury and Lonnavale. These dots may not all be true: I think that sometimes the satellite gets confused by thick smoke. But given the current TFS emergency warnings, I think a fair bit of it is. Forecasts for the next 3 days have a minimum 28 degrees, and we're seeing the wind play a big part - they're still forecast at 30 km/h plus for those days (not 55 as we've had, but bear in mind that active fire convection will change this)
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29/1/19, 11:08AM
It's going to be a warm one. If you're still home and anywhere near this fire, be prepared. Sentinel at 09:40am shows spots heading towards Tongatabu, and I believe at least some of them. With increasing NW wind, all of us from Glendevie northward are at risk. The sea breeze may help those on low ground but you still need to be very prepared for embers. I'm hearing activity close to Fourfoot/Donnelleys too.
2/2/19, 8:39AM
This morning's Sentinel makes it look like we've just
got a few little fires, as the broader activity of >3
days ago has dropped off the time-coded records.
Wishful thinking.
Firefighting normally happens in a series of steps.
For a small fire, you'd attack the front to stop its
progress then construct a fuel-free boundary to
'contain' it, then black out for a distance of 1-2 tree
lengths inside that boundary to ensure nothing could
fall/blow to escape, patrolling until it was all out.
This fire stymies our normal techniques. We can't
attack its roaring front on the bad days, boundary
construction is nigh on impossible in difficult terrain
and very short timeframes, we haven't the resources
to black out and patrol thoroughly.
Take care over the coming hot days, look out and
listen for TFS updates, and communicate well with
those around you.
Special mention here goes to Geeveston Pharmacist Ian Magill, whose presence at his
shop through most of the difficult days provided not just medical care, but connection
and an information exchange site.
This connection was a challenge at times: there was concern among stayers that
roadblocks might strand people away from home if they went out for a visit or errand. I
heard of locals returning to property defence with more firefighting equipment being
denied entry up Fourfoot Rd by emergency services. And the road closure process was
full of rumour and inconsistency: it really could benefit from some clearer structure and
definition (eg. closed vs residents-only), and for an access permission system to allow
temporary outings during escalation.
5. Land management techniques to prepare for fire
I’m sure there will be plenty of calls for firebreaks, big planes, fuel reduction burns and
cessation of forestry in the submissions to this Review. But as an experienced former
manager of the Riveaux fire’s landscape, I believe the fire prevention and preparedness
of that landscape was close to as good as it could be.
I’ve seen fuel reduction burns of fire-prone landscape elements (eg. plains) occurring
through the years, strategically managed by multiple agencies. I’ve seen regeneration
burning programs usually conducted successfully to reduce fuel load and future risk in
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harvested coupes (not always, but that’s the nature of a weather-dependent operation).
And I’ve seen the successful use of fire trails and boundary tracks to access first attack
and complete initial control of fire starts.
Indeed, I believe that one of the factors influencing ‘late runs’ was also the effective
delay of the start of those runs by firefighters in the field.
Worth mentioning here are many examples I’ve seen of control of summer arson events
in harvested coupes; directly contrasts allegations that “production forests in the Huon
put lives at risk”. Indeed the rapid control of fires from the same lightning and in the
same weather, at Conways Rd, Arve Rd, Billy Creek and Hastings, demonstrates that
well-designed and conducted forest harvesting isn’t a risk in itself (and perhaps can
benefit access… if locked gates don’t impede).
6. Community learning, healing and future preparation
I’ve heard so many people surprised at how this fire was different to ’67. It wasn’t
different to me: the 2003 Victorian Alpine fires where I earned my IMT stripes followed
the same life cycle. But landscape-scale, campaign fires are less common in Tasmania,
and thus present a great opportunity for learning.
Riveaux fire caused comparatively little damage to the foreground of our community
(noting the damage at Tahune Airwalk, Southwood and a significant amount of timber
resource), and I think this is in part due to its ‘lazy’ behaviour and in part to the
suppression that delayed or prevented morning or afternoon runs. But with little
visibility of damage after the extended period of emergency and evacuation, I’m
concerned that many around the fire may develop a sense of complacency: that “it
didn’t reach or damage me so I’ll be safe from fire in future”.
In the same way that evacuees were hanging out for any news of where the fire was,
what work was happening, and what firefighting plans were, our community is
interested in why the fire happened as it did. And as detailed in point 5, the best time to
provide this information is during the fire but failing that level of engagement, the
second best time would be right now.
This Review must not just gather information, but it must use a full range of engagement
techniques to share that information and its findings back with the communities
affected by these fires, and those further away who watched and can share in any
learning that comes. This both helps to heal the trauma experience, and to open the
door to learning and improving preparedness for the next time a fire begins, preventing
that risk of complacency.
Those who worked on the fire are particularly important to involve, both in providing
that opportunity to acknowledge and move on from the trauma and challenge of their
work, and to provide the broader community with a genuine understanding of the real,
grounded and often terribly humble people who made such a difference to this fire. I
really hope that you and your team have easy access to these voices, and that if you
don’t that you’ll engage with the overarching agencies to create open and respectful
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recognition for the voices of our firefighters. It troubles me that technically these people
aren’t allowed to share their experiences publicly, yet this can provide such education
and information to those around them and be really important as a means of support for
those exhausted and challenged individuals. We need ways to facilitate this responsibly
and respectfully.
I recently returned from a trip to New Zealand, and the level of preparation and
engagement for tsunami and earthquake response there struck me as a model for our
potential approach to bushfires. I’m aware of good work going into Community Bushfire
Protection Plans, but really these just provide a system for recording and awareness of
what a community has, not a mechanism for improving it. (Recent community discussion
about the lack of a Nearby Safer Place (NSP) for Mountain River and Grove communities
highlights this.) Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have things like:
- Signage identifying NSPs and reminding of what to do when using one
- TV or radio advertisements of how to respond to alerts just prior to bushfire
season
- Annual drills for bushfire-prone communities
- Education in schools (not just on house fires)
- Greater engagement on developing getaway kits
Conclusions
For three months, my family lived with the uncertainty of a parent on emergency
response and recovery. It wasn’t that fun, although we are immensely proud and
appreciative of all the work he and all his multi-agency colleagues did and of their great
achievements in managing the Riveaux Fire.
Normal is returning slowly, though I think it will take a while for us all to feel
comfortable with the ring of a work phone out-of-hours.
I really appreciate the opportunity to have input into this Review, and I’d be happy to
provide further information or feedback during your process, and in future as an active
and conscientious member of this community that I love.
Amy Robertson
3/5/2019
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Key Points:
1. First response suppression of Riveaux fire
2. Rostering crews and/or IMT staff at times vital for fire response
3. Balancing use of local/imported resources
4. Broad and longstanding emergency warning alerts
5. Inadequate TFS communication with staying residents
6. Land management techniques to prepare for fire
7. Community learning, healing and future preparation