Comments on recent fire-management in bush-fire areas

Forest Facts may wish to learn that I have been analysing bushfires for some years and more particularly the Victorian Bushfires weekly since the weeks before the blow up. Forest Facts may be interested to read the Australia Science Media Centre's report on Wednesday 28 January 2009 entitled "Are we underprepared for the bushfire threat?" SOURCE: http://aussmc.org/bushfire_threat_Jan09.php "As the mercury soars into the 40s this week in southern Australia, the risk of bushfires is high. But experts warn that today’s knowledge and practices on bushfire management will not meet the needs of the community in coming decades. Climate change and drought are altering the nature, ferocity and duration of bushfires, and while the right type of fire can contribute to a healthy and diverse environment, research is telling us that the wrong type of fire – too hot or too frequent – can affect the amount of water in our rivers and the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. These issues are further compounded by the expanding rural-urban fringe creating increasing numbers of people living in higher risk areas that are ignorant of the bushfire threat – either because they don’t consider their homes to be in a bushfire zone or they underestimate the risk." The CFA knew the weather risks, the bushfire risks, the existing fires uncontrolled before 7 Feb, the arson threat, the tinder dry bush, yet did precious little to escalate a STATE OF EMERGENCY on 6 Feb as the forecast fires index was to exceed 300! No interstate resources called in. No airborne resources called in. Then we hear of Brumby's incitement to dormant arsonists on the TV the night prior. He was neglegently reckless to do so. I am from Melbourne and have bushwalked through Kinglake National Park. I well understand what happened on 7 Feb, but importantly also about the weeks in January preceding the firestorms and the many fires in the years prior in Victoria, NSW, ACT and SA plus overseas (Greece, Canada, California) I am analysing the lot. The media and politics has conveniently focused on Marysville. You have selected the Mt Riddle fire example. The Victorian fires comprised the Kinglake fire complex, the Dandenong Ranges Fire, the Beechworth Fire, the Murrindindi Mill Complex Fire, the Churchill Fire, the Bunyip Fire, the Bendigo Fire, Redesdale Fire, Narre Warren Fire, Wilsons Promontory Fire, Horsham Fire, Coleraine Fire, Weerite Fire, Tallangatta Fire and a few smaller scale ones. The Royal Commission terms of reference are about identifying specific causes. Lightning is one; arson another. Multiple spotovers resulted in consequential fires fanned by strong changing winds and tinder dry bush and forest. Again we hear of steep and difficult terrain, yet the year in year out bushfire funding is blindly channelled into more fire trucks which are incapable of accessing remote ignitions in such country. The scale of the impact was massive and perhaps unprecedented, but indeed sets a precedent and DSE/CFA and Brumby are warning us of a repeat! How bloody irresponsible for a government to not only fail to protect its citizens from a pre-warned catastrophe, but then afterwards to proclaim it will all happen again and that our government cannot do anything about it! Why do we pay taxes? What is inescapable is that rural bushfire management has a duty to protect life property and (now popularly accepted - ecological assets - that is, the bush too. Last February was a catastrophic failure, but then many years across Australia has repeatedly seen catastrophic failures to save lives, property,livestock and ecology. Yet tie and again, state governments whitewash over the coronial enquiries, throw token millions to pacify the public then distract the public with other news, until it all happens again. Detection of ignitions comes too late, response is too late, airborne resources come too late. None of these core performance measures are recorded! The fires cost billions, but again the TOTAL COST OF FIRE, is not recorded. You misunderstand me about my military recommendation. The current military is yes inadequate, untrained and incompetent to handle such national bushfire emergencies. The Army is not set up for this. They can't even get peacekeeping right - cite Dilli 2006! What I am advocating is winding up of urban fire brigades, the SES, CFA, RFS, CFS, DSE, EMA. Instead, establishing Emergency Management Australia as a brand new specialised division of the ARMY (as a full paid, trained and resourced National Guard equivalent). This must include billions in investment - national satellite monitoring across SE Australia, an airborne division (aircraft, helicopter and RAFT), ground firefighting forces with state-of-the-art equipment, cross-training and communications, recruitment and skilling up existing bush firefighting crews and fire brigades into a new national profession force. The cost is cheap if we measure the TOTAL COST OF FIRE each year. I can justtify military budgets protecting people in our region (Dilli and Solomons), but let's rethink pouring Austrlian taxpayer billions into Afghanistan and Iraq. It's all relative and it's all about political will. Without such massive billions in a single national professional military style organisation, we can expect poorly resourced and taken-for-granted dad's armies of volunteers to repeatedly share in future incinerations of rural communities. I am not blaming the volunteers. They have little choice. But show me otherwise how such catastrophies will not be prevented? The kneejerk dogmatic reaction is to nuke the bush back to scorched earth. Did we not learn from Vietnam?