There are out-of-control fires burning across northern Victoria, Australia, with more than 170,000 hectares consumed so far. There is an update in today’s The Age and also a photo gallery which can be accessed from the main page.
Yesterday I phoned Max Rheese a friend and colleague from Benalla. He said he was OK and that he would send me a note for the blog about the fires:
“Seven days ago, on Friday December 1, I relaxed in the family room of my home in Benalla in North East Victoria and watched the first of the summer thunderstorms pass overhead. I witnessed the lightning strike in the nearby ranges that started the first of fifty fires to be ignited by that thunderstorm. A week later I sit in the same room and cannot see more than 200 metres into the paddocks because of the thick smoke that has enveloped Benalla from the still burning fires.
A total of 150,000 hectares of mainly native forest has been burnt in the past week. Tomorrow the forecast temperature is 39 degrees with northerly winds and dire predictions of impending disaster by everyone from Premier Bracks to the local hairdresser. Speculation of 600,000 hectares being burnt by the end of next week are reported.
A distinct feeling of déjà vu pervades, as North East Victoria went through the same sort of event in the Alpine fires of 2003 where 1.1 million hectares of mainly public land was burnt in 59 days of inferno that was unequalled, in area burnt, since Black Friday in January 1939.
It is difficult to comprehend for many people that we should be facing a potential holocaust this summer after the very recent disastrous fires of 2003. Ample evidence was presented at a number of inquiries into the 2003 fires that a lack of prescribed burning over a twenty year period had increased the fuel load in many areas of the high country of Victoria.
Athol Hodgson, a former chief fire officer for the then Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands presented submissions to the inquiries that followed the 2003 fires detailing the lack of prescribed burning over the previous two decades. This was not disputed.
The following is an extract of a paper that Hodgson delivered to The Eureka Forum in Ballarat in 2004:
Another top priority is to restore prescribed burning programs in forests. Immediately after the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 the Government injected $1 million extra into the programs effectively doubling the money available for field staff to do the work. Yet the programs crashed. In 1992 the Auditor General found that the Department of Conservation and Environment had failed to achieve its planned fuel-reduction targets in three consecutive seasons and that those areas the Department identified as warranting the highest level of protection to human life, property and public assets received the lowest level of protection. And in 2003 the Auditor General found that since 1994, fuel reduction burning has never met the Department’s planning and operational fuel-reduction targets. In allowing that to happen, the Department ignored the truism heralded by Judge Stretton in 1939, repeated by Sir Esler Hamilton Barber in 1977 and further reinforced by the Miller Report on the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983, that fire prevention must be the paramount consideration of the forest manager.
The Government and the Department must lift their game. They must do so, not only in places where the priority is to protect life and assets. Those places are a very small proportion of the forest estate and to concentrate on them to the exclusion of the rest of the forests will lead inevitably to more feral fires. Prescribed burning has been done successfully in the past on broad areas to create forest diversity and reduce the damaging effects of wildfires. The practice had little community and no political support from the mid-1980’s until 2003 and was the reason why fuel management programs crashed in that era. That support must be won and the practice reinstated in our forests in a safe way.
…”that fire prevention must be the paramount consideration of the forest manager”.
This is not rocket science, but we as a community have lost the plot. We are so busy embracing the notion of protecting our forests that we cannot see the forest for the trees.
For goodness sake! How many times do we have to go through this before we get it right?
Figures supplied by the Department of Sustainability and Environment [responsible for fire management on public land] to the Auditor General show that 127,000 hectares were burnt in 2004 – 2005 in prescribed burns. This very mediocre total was one year after the disastrous Alpine fires of 2003. This is well below the 10 year average for burns of 200,000 hectares and even further behind the high points of prescribed burning in the 1980’s where totals of upto 450,000 were burnt one year and over 300,000 hectares were burnt in several other years.
We need to stop the blame game, encourage the Victorian government to adopt a proper scientific regime of sufficient prescribed burning that will deliver confidence in the management of native forests to lessen the impacts of fires in years of severe drought such as this year.
Governments and the community must accept that there is inherent risk in prescribed burning and that occassionally a burn will escape. To not accept this risk and to be overly prescriptive with protocols for burning operations will result in the situation that country Victorians will face this weekend; multiple uncontrolled wildfires in areas that have not had fuel reduction burns for many years.
Max Rheese
Executive Director, Australian Environment Foundation “
——————————————-
My thoughts are with the communities in northern Victoria and also the communities of forest animals.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Fire location and updates here:
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/nrenfoe.nsf/LinkView/90FCAC74BB9A4F2ECA257090001E6F22E2ACC26BB87D6BFC4A2567CB000DB12D
Max wrote “We need to stop the blame game, encourage the Victorian government to adopt a proper scientific regime of sufficient prescribed burning that will deliver confidence in the management of native forests to lessen the impacts of fires in years of severe drought such as this year” and I agree however we can’t wait for modern environment science to catch up with our rapidly deepening droughts and possible climate change.
Only the old timers had the sense and skill to hop in and blacken their breaks in time with out notice. There is too much emphasis today on purity of form and a very shallow knowledge of what was or could be again. It leaves us with a massive task of retraining another whole generation of astute carers in bush craft we can all depend on.
“This is not rocket science, but we as a community have lost the plot. We are so busy embracing the notion of protecting our forests that we cannot see the forest for the trees.
For goodness sake! How many times do we have to go through this before we get it right?”
How true Max and I tip my hat to the veracity and effort of men like Athol Hodgson, who, amongst others have for decades been trying to raise the bar on this issue.
And Gavin sums it up by saying, “It leaves us with a massive task of retraining another whole generation of astute carers in bush craft we can all depend on.” It begs the question though of what they have been training them for in the last few decades and why?
Good luck to all dealing with this current feral wildfire and take care.
To put the extent of fires in the context, please see:
http://www.aus-emaps.com/hotspots.php
I already wrote these comments on the Pilliga Forest Burns and I think that the contribution has such importance that I bring it up again in this forum!
To all people interested in preventing forest and bush fires!
Fire Watch – The “Automated Wildland Suiveillance System” is detecting smoke at a very early stage when any fire is still small – day and night! Each sensor operates 360 degree up to 40 km in distance and covers approx 5000 km2. The data is sent to the Control Center preferrably at the regional Fire Brigade Station. Instantly, without loss of time exact information on the location, the type of fire, dynamics, time etc is available to the fire and operation management, the alarm can be set. Fire Fightin operation can be started in an early stage of a forest/bush fire when thermic dynamics have not yet developed. Valuable time is saved as opposed to “manned out-looks”. The system operates automatic, around the clock. The operator at the Control Center reeives alarms on his screen and he is monitoring the area of each sensor, capable of zooming in on each spotted alarm.
The Fire Wacht “smoke detecting system” was tested in many countries in this world i.g. USA, Canada, with large wildland areas too. The power supply for the system requires only approx 150 W and is normaly supplied by our autonomous power supply which is a combination of wind, solar and hydrogen for locations without acces to the main.
The power supply should never be the principal problem to operate the Fire Watch System.
For the communication we are using different technics i.g. Telephone lines, point to point radio, satallite, LAN or WAN – or any combination of it.
The most practical method is the use of point to point radio to the next fixed access point of an existing network. There are 2.3 or 5.4 GHz of the shelf units with a distance capacity of 40 km line of sight. If the distance is higher than 40 km or non line of sight, we can work with an repeater station.
In any case at each radio access point we need to have a mast, which can be an existing power line tower, building, radio mast telecommunication mast, look-out tower, etc.
As we are transmitting only data packages and not live video streams the stability of communication is very high.
The Fire Watch Technology detects smoke very reliable, day and night, by measuring parameters of typical smoke patterns like colour, brightness, dynamics, structure and expansion. These parameters are the first signs when a forest/bush fire starts. The sensor starts measurement if the contrast ratio between the smoke and the background is higher 10% over the distance of 40 km at good visability (the human eye still does not detect anything).
Once the system generates an alert all the related data like images, bearings and position as well as the distance are reported and instantly displaied to the Controll Office at a manned Command Centre. At the Control Office the operator can command individually each connected sensor unit to get from the alarm point or any other selected areas zoomed images, specially monitored sequencial images or single images to a more detailed evaluation. Based on this information the operator decides instantly and within few minutes after the alert to send out an alarm to the Fire Fighting Management with a full package of information on location, dynamics, type of fire etc.
The system is in addition prepared to collect and report data on wind speed, humidity, temperature etc from each sensor unit location.
With today’s detection methods a fire ignited by lighting etc is reported by “chance or luck” with a time lag. Either an observation aircraft flies over a given area or manned look-outs detect a fire or a car driver on a motorway reports a fire on his mobile. The fire normally reached already a remarkable dimension and dynamic.
Critical information that needs a further investigation usually is the location, type and characteristic of fire, directon of the fire etc. Valuable time is lost (up to one hour) during collection of such information which is however necessary to launch the fire fighting operation. Usually it takes two hours or more until the operation can start actively.
With the Fire Watch Technology we install sensor units that monitor bush and forest areas around the clock. The Control Center has instant access to the wildland without delay. The area is under constant control. The operator at the Control Centre has access to the complete area shown on his screen and without any time delay he can send out an alarm to the Fire Fighting Managment. Operations can be launched during an early stage when a fire has not yet developed its strong dynamics.
Time is crutial. Modern Technology like Fire Watch is a tactical instrument to collect exact and valuable information without loss of time and guide Fire Fighters and aircrafts to the disaster area. It is possible to have first activities within half an hour on the spot while it usually takes up to two hours until first the operation starts with conventional reporting systems.
In the South of France the successful experience with the Fire Watch System confirmed that the real-time monitoring with collection of real-time data reduced the time by 1 1/2h to 2h until Fire Fighting Operations were on place.
The technology to assist Fire Fighting Management is available and can be integrated into the Bush and Forest Fire Prevention Managment.
You may get more detailed info from http://www.fire-watch.ch.
And here’s information on fires buring in Tasmania : http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/mysite/Show?pageId=colBushfireSummaries .
I previously posted on Wielangta forest: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001746.html .
I’ve been told the Kellevie Road fire is burning not far from the Blue Gums pictured in that blog post.
Werner please note Jennifer’s link to Tasmania’s bushfire situation where there are now about twenty outbreaks scattered through some of their remote regions and other islands.
Werner must be more involved with finding solutions to our remote communications problems before making sweeping recommendations about his sensor networks for our country.
Folks IMHO it is not feasible to implement any ground based bushfire warning system without the help of a major telecommunications carrier, perhaps several need to be involved before there is a case for proceeding. It is not the sensors but the backbone which is most important.
Although it is a few years since I have done any frequency assigning I can easily recall the difficulties of getting fresh access to major radio sites for anything other than dedicated trunk routes.
The government had me play hard with scarce resources in a number of bands and that was at least ten years ago. It took months to sort out even a handful of links using manual methods, today it’s more about the cost of network engineering from the installation point of view.
We don’t have the technicians in the field anymore.
Some updates here:
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_updates.htm#1408334514145
I have temporarily given up on googling re microwave links for werner’s network.
Please note; these people use Sentinel for tracking and so do I
Also consider the problems of using smoke detectors and their likely warnings when the whole of Vic is blanketed by heavy smoke that has now drifted right over the ACT
It’s not the time for point scoring. Consider for a moment our firefighters from all over and the long months ahead. NSW is now 93% drought declared and the state’s water storages are down to a bit over 20%.
I invite Cinders and other TCA members interstate and everyone in general to look at this timber resources site, the rural communities of N E Victoria, Gippsland and our forest industries beyond.
Please note I have a soft spot for Myrtleford near Bright, their plantations and pulp mill supplied our tissue paper production throughout my years in that business.
Note too how we depend on the region for this and that right round its edge. There is some 250,000 people around there normally. I studied their communications and their high voltage energy transmission microwave control.
http://www.plantationsnortheast.com.au/existing.htm#12.2_Plantation-based_Industry
There is also an awful lot of wild life going up in smoke tonight in vast areas firefighters can’t reach.
It is interesting to note exactly how many people need to die by fire before the community will vote out an incompetent government.
In the ACT fires of 2003 five people died in a fire on the day the Chief Minister had his phone on “do not disturb” from 10am to 11am while he had coffee with his son and grandson.
But this negligence, and subsequent outrageous attempts to muzzle the coroner and influence her findings, the voters of the ACT still voted him back in the next election.
So lets put this into perspective. The ACT population is 330,000 so the casualty rate from the fire was one in 66,000 but this was not enough for a leader to be thrown out of office.
On that ratio it would take more than 100 fire deaths in NSW and the Premier who is ultimately responsible for negligent fire management would still hang on to office. In Victoria up to 87 deaths would still not be enough to unseat the people most responsible.
Lets go through the lot, thats 61 Queenslanders, 30 from WA, 24 from SA and 7 Tasmanians.
But come to think of it, the health system is killing more than that every single year.
If Bin Laden would kindly put a bomb under these guys I will gladly cease all my vices, convert to islam, and I might even round him up some virgins for his trouble.
Yes Gavin,
if the sky is blanketed by smoke it’s already too late. Fire Watch is a system that is monitoring on realtime an area where nothing happens. It however will spot a place where smoke is produced and will report. The operator will instantly zoom in on that area and further analize the situation before deciding to send out an alarm.
If you talk about blanketed skies the dynamics of fire have for some time already taken over.
I tried to transmit the understanding that Fire Watch is a tactical insturment to prevent explicitely such dynamics and fight a fire in its very beginning stage. It first has to be detected and localized, then reported and extinguished when still controllable.
The discussion should in my view concentrate on how such fires can be prevented firsthand. Among the practicle and known solutions of any Fire Prevention Management the Fire Watch System being a network of sensor units monitoring rural bushland and forest where normally nothing happens, will supply that missing edge of information detecting a spot where a fire just is to start!
Wouldn’t it be more than worthwhile to look deeper into this technology?
You are right that the stream of data has to be transported in some way. We do have solutions to that problem which can be discussed and which are well known among the specialists. Anyway the cost of wildland devastated by fire and the loss of life is manyfold higher than the infrastructure that helps prevent such fires.
Gavin I did not get your point about microwave and “please note these people use Sentinel for tracking and so do I..”
In the Rocky Mountains the system detected in a distance of approx 40 km in a hilly forested area a small smoke flag rising through trees straight into the sky and did however not send out an alert. The operator detected the spot on his monitor, zoomed in to verify – it was a small indian fire with the lack of dynamics and later checks showed it was a man controlled fire.
Werner: “Sentinel” is our main bushfire mapping tool and it is used by all national and state authorities for updates on outbreaks.
“Sentinel currently obtains data from the NASA Earth Observation Satellites Terra and Aqua. Plans are well advanced to include data from other satellites in the near future”
http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/about.shtml
Return to the Sentinel home page, the map is so easy to use. Today there are many fires still burning around the Victorian town, Mansfield.
To the east of Mansfield in the current bushfire operational areas there are very few roads or ground based communication networks. Crews are hampered by difficult terrain and I guess are most likely to be restricted to working just around the few settlements.
Other state based systems report on direct observations via various communications networks such as radios and mobile phones
Gavin,
We understand that the availability of communication networks in rural regions seems to be a major problem in Australia. The Fire Watch System is designed to work with any communication technology like:
Telephone line and mobile phones, radios, point to point, satellite, microwave.
From whom can we get more detailed information about exesting communication systems used today. Please send us the contacts we then will work out a communication concept.
Since Fire Watch is not using video life streams but simply data packages, a data rate of 128 kb is adequate for a reliable transfer of Fire Watch Information.
Regards
Everyone fighting the fires throughout Australia are heroes, however, it is disappointing that timber workers who are vilified by the media, harrassed by the great unwashed and looked down upon by people who love timber products are not given due recognition for their efforts in fighting the fires. In Victoria it is estimated that over $30 million of timber workers equipment is on the front line fighting the fires. Like others these men have not been home for two weeks leaving behind families to worry about their safety. Unfortunately in a cruel twist of fate Peter McConacy a contractor who prior to the fires was salvage logging the forests destroyed by the 2003 fires has had his equipment go up in flames. Peter along with 6 of his employees were off fighting fires in other areas when the winds changed and his equipment on the outskirts of Mt. Beauty was destroyed. Is it too much for those that have opposed these heroes for years to say thankyou, to recognise them for their hard work and dedication to saving rural communities? Finally people should think if there is no timber workers, where will the $30 million of equipment come from and who will have the skills to operate the machinery in dense forests?
Quite true Kersten,
As the film “The Madness of George III” showed, it is often entirely the wrong people who get promoted, or otherwise rewarded. Why not send a list of names to the Governor-General, and suggest the timber workers get some award?
it is produced renders this purchase altogether impracticable. considered as somewhat of this nature. They tend directly, it may