Fire Down Below

By Chief Fire Officer Gary Morgan Department of Sustainability and Environment Melbourne, Australia

More than one million hectares — that's 2.5 million acres — of national park, state forest and grazing land were burnt by a single wildfire event in eastern Victoria, Australia, last summer. This event saw at least 40 agencies pull together to contain the fire and assist affected communities in what would eventually be a 59-day firefighting campaign. Such was the enormity of the fire situation that, in an Australian first, Victoria requested assistance from the United States and New Zealand.

The state of Victoria is located in southeastern Australia, one of the most wildfire-prone regions in the world. The Department of Sustainability and Environment is the fire management agency for Victoria's 7.7 million hectares of parks and forests. These areas are composed mainly of eucalypt-dominated forests and woodlands. The Victorian Country Fire Authority attends to fire events on the remaining privately owned rural land in Victoria, and the two agencies have well-developed mutual support arrangements.

It's important to note that prior to the start of the 2002 fire season, Victoria was in the grip of a prolonged drought. A below-average rainfall had been recorded for most of the state every year since 1996. From a fire management perspective, the fine, elevated, coarse and bark fuels were all at high levels and extremely dry.

Two significant fire events stand out from this fire season: the Big Desert Fire in December 2002 and the Alpine Fires at the beginning of 2003.

FIRE CHRONOLOGY

On the Dec. 17, 2002, two lightning strikes caused fires in the Big Desert Wilderness Park in the dry northwest of Victoria. The fires merged and spread into the adjoining Wyper-field National Park, burning a total of 181,400 hectares (453,500 acres) in 15 days.

The Big Desert fire was declared safe on Dec. 31 after rain in the area assisted with containment. At the peak of this fire, more than 300 firefighters, nine water-bombing aircraft and 75 specialized vehicles were deployed. Fire crews grappled with a fire that at times saw rates of spread of 8km/h (about 5mph). Another large fire in Victoria's far east, that also began in late December, was contained on Jan. 3 after burning nearly 31,000 hectares (77,500 acres).

Jan. 8 was the start of the largest fire event, which came to be known as the Alpine Fires. This day saw lightning start more than 85 fires after a cold front passed over Victoria. These fires were mainly located in the east of the state. Fire crews worked extremely hard and expediently, containing all but nine fires within the first week. The remaining fires eventually merged to form the largest fire Victoria had seen in over 60 years.

Often erratic and intense fire behavior, coupled with the very steep and inaccessible terrain, made fire suppression extremely difficult. This one fire event burnt approximately 1.12 million hectares (2.8 million acres). The cooperation of the fire agencies and local communities, however, kept home losses to around 40, and only 75,000 hectares (185,328 acres) of grazing land burned.

In fact, the Victorian Alpine fires saw unprecedented levels of community information flow. DSE and the CFA organized public meetings for communities that were put on high alert to keep residents up to date on the fire progress and suppression strategies. In total, 90 community meetings were held with more than 8,700 people attending. Each incident management team also issued community newsletters, which were placed in public places such as tourist information centers, shops and hotels, as well as on the DSE and CFA web sites. Local emergency hotline phone numbers and call centers were established, and phone trees were enacted to full capacity by the CFA.

HELP FROM ABROAD

Such was the magnitude of these Alpine Fires that by the end of January Victoria was welcoming assistance from an international firefighting contingent comprised of firefighters, incident management team personnel and technical specialists.

Approximately 60 New Zealand alpine fire specialists and 35 U.S. high-country and forest firefighting specialists supported Victoria throughout January and February. Only a few months previously New Zealand and Australian crews had flown to the United States to help fight one of the worst forest fires in U.S. history, the large Biscuit Fire in Oregon.

U.S. fire personnel were deployed to Australia from the USDA Forest Service and the Department of Interior's bureaus of Land Management and Indian Affairs, the National Parks Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The New Zealand contingent was deployed from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the New Zealand National Rural Fire Authority. Extra aircraft also were employed from the United States, in addition to locally contracted aircraft.

Wildfire events such as these Alpine Fires are managed in Victoria using the Australian Inter-service Incident Management System, which is derived from the American National Inter-service Incident Management System. A similar system, the Coordinated Incident Management System, also is used by New Zealand fire agencies. Having a common emergency management system allows Australia, New Zealand and the United States to have formal reciprocal arrangements in place for emergency management assistance.

In addition to the international fire personnel, more than 800 interstate fire crews and volunteers generously supported Victoria throughout the 59-day firefighting campaign. This represented a new level of personnel management within the incident command system, and an international/interstate liaison unit was established for the first time within the liaison section of ICS. The main functions of the ILU were:

To ensure that logistical and resourcing requirements associated with the arrival, deployment, welfare, demobilization, and departure of the interstate and international task forces were met;
To support international and interstate liaison officers; and
To act as a contact point for DSE and CFA for matters relating to the international and interstate task forces.

COORDINATED EFFORT

While the 2003 Alpine Fire campaign was lengthy and arduous, DSE is very proud of what was achieved not only at the fire line, but also at the community and departmental levels. The many experiences encountered have been taken away for consideration. But one of the most outstanding aspects of these fires was the coordinated effort applied by more than 40 agencies, from ambulance services to local municipalities, from electricity supply companies to Australian Defense Force personnel, from international and interstate crews to local radio stations.

The Victorian community, along with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and the Country Fire Authority, are extremely grateful to the international and interstate fire personnel for their professionalism and generosity. Without their help and skills, the 2003 Alpine Fires could have been much more devastating and prolonged. The spirit of cooperation is to be commended.

Gary Morgan is the chief fire officer in the department of sustainability and environment.

Other fires

The Alpine Fires weren't the only fires to occur in this 59-day period. Significant fires also broke out in the central, southeastern and southwestern regions of Victoria, further stretching fire resources. The neighboring state of New South Wales was experiencing major fires in the southern regions, fires which started as a result of the same lightning belt. The Australian Capital Territory, at this time, also encountered devastating fires when more than 400 homes were destroyed in suburban Canberra.

Safety updates

Firefighter safety was a priority throughout the Alpine Fire campaign, especially in relation to fatigue management and dehydration. Regular Occupational Health and Safety updates were produced for firefighters and incident management teams. Unfortunately one firefighter lost her life, ironically in a flash flood on Feb. 26. Cheryl Barber-Fankhauser, 43, of Wandiligong was driving home in a convoy after retrieving a damaged tanker when her vehicle was caught in a major localized thunderstorm activity. Barber-Fankhauser had been a seasonal firefighter with DSE for eight years. During the same thunderstorm event, a water-bombing aircraft crashed and burned, and the pilot was rescued with minor injuries.

Victoria, Australia, fire seasons