Town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons

John O’Donnell considers that large numbers of Australian towns and cities are inadequately prepared for bushfires, and this is one of the reasons for undertaking this review. Source: Timberbiz, John O’Donnell

Readers can assess bushfire preparation in relation to their own and other towns/ cities and assess if bushfire preparation is well managed, has improved after earlier bushfires and if it has improved since the 2019/ 20 bushfires.

The full document titled Town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons across Australia is linked here.

Town bushfire disaster review and lessons O’Donnell 2024

Nineteen Australian town and city impact and disaster bushfire case studies are highlighted in Section 2 of the review.  These outline bushfire information in relation to each of the selected bushfires, and in most cases bushfire lessons and insights.

These case studies are from Victoria 5, NSW 4, SA 3, WA 3, Tas 1, ACT 1, Australia 1 and a combined Vic/ SA case study, a broad representation of town and city disasters across most of Australia.

Seven older case studies are included in the bushfire disaster assessment from 1851 to 1967, it is important to note that town and city bushfire disasters are not just a recent phenomenon and have occurred since European settlement and the curtailment of Aboriginal burning practices. The other twelve case studies range from 1983 to 2021.

Inadequate bushfire preparedness and mitigation has resulted in the continuation of large intense bushfires across SE Australia, including impacts on towns and cities, and are often associated with long fire runs.

Another issue that greatly concerns the author is that Australia has never really fully nor effectively captured and locked in many of the key lessons in relation to avoiding and reducing town and city bushfire disasters across these communities on an ongoing basis.

A major focus of Section 3 of the review is capturing key bushfire disaster lessons and insights in relation to town and city bushfire disaster avoidance, sound fire and fuel mitigation, fuel management, preparedness for bushfires, community and firefighter safety, infrastructure protection, firefighting attack and a range of other lessons from case studies over the last 170 years.

Twenty-two lesson and insight broad areas are outlined, and include a considerable number of lessons and insights, 127 in all. The analysis was detailed and assessed the case study lessons in Section 2 and also a large number of bushfire disaster documentation, as outlined at the start of Section 3.

If we don’t improve actioning in regards to capturing and implementing bushfire lessons and insights, there will continue to be large scale impacts on communities, community members, infrastructure, fire fighters, forestry plantations, forests, the environment and massive economic impacts.

There appear to be a lot of opportunities for the forestry/ plantation sector to be involved in alliances  improving community and forest/ plantation preparedness for bushfires, including the following opportunities:

Bushfire preparedness

1. Improve community, forestry and infrastructure preparedness for bushfires using alliancing opportunities.
2. Optimise regular landscape prescribed burning which makes bushfire suppression easier, safer and cheaper and also reduces bushfire losses, human, built and environmental. Utilise opportunities for upskilling and fire mitigation training for bushfires using coordinated prescribed burning programs to develop fire skills.
3. Ensure fire safe establishment of track/ trail networks to access areas for prescribed burning and bushfire fighting. Ensure tracks/ trails are permanent and suitable for the movement of heavy vehicles and personnel safely and quickly. Optimise regular burning programs in the forest areas where the tracks are located in order to optimize firefighter safety.

Collaboration in fire management

4. Increase bushfire collaboration between public and private sectors, including and local and state governments, landholders and the forestry sector.

Improved bushfire detection and communication

5. Optimise improved bushfire detection over broad areas. Establish efficient and innovative systems to quickly detect, locate, report and geo-reference new and incipient fires for quick coordinated initial attack. Camera and satellite systems have advantages but fire towers can cover large areas.
6. Optimise communication systems to best handle communication in bushfire events, reducing bushfire safety risks.

Cooperatively address increasing bushfire disaster and disaster insurance costs

7. Urgently address high and rising bushfire disaster insurance costs via increased mitigation funding/ opportunities, this can be optimised in collaborative approaches.

Cooperative approaches for funding submissions

8. Cooperative approaches may improve opportunities for broader projects to reduce bushfire risks and may increase success of funding. A greater range of skillsets are valuable in seeking funding.

Cooperative bushfire risk reduction measures

9. Utilise bushfire path mapping is available for all towns, cities and local government areas. Increase district/ community/ town/ city awareness of previous bushfire travel paths over the last 80 plus years and authorise local town/ city bushfire plan members to progress this in relation to preparedness and mitigation and optimise escape routes.
10. Ensure mapping of all major sources of firebrands such as eucalypt/ other species with loose bark that increase the risk of fire brand storms over communities and landscapes and manage these areas for firebrand fuel. Understand that firebrands can travel up to 35 km and map where major firebrand forests are located in bushfire suppression planning.
11. Lead the way and refine the focus from a bushfire suppression focus to an effective mitigation and suppression focus. A Menzies Research Centre (2020) report noted that in 2014, a report released by the Productivity Commission into Natural Disaster Funding Arrangements found that government natural disaster funding arrangements had been inefficient, inequitable and unsustainable and noted mitigation funding amounted to only three per cent of what is spent on post-disaster recovery.
12. Continue to refine quick first attack techniques and approaches, noting this could be optimised in collaborative approaches.
13. Ensure dozers and plant are on the bushfire fire grounds quickly, as required.
14. Utilise airports, roads and fire trails for bushfire mitigation and suppression and wherever possible ensure safe for vehicle passing and turning.

Cooperative prescribed burning, fuel reduction and forest health measures across landscapes

15. Increase rates of cooperative prescribed burning across landscapes and utilization of low intensity burns every 3-6 years, where approved, hopefully under 10 year approved plan approaches. Optimise prescribed burning in areas difficult for fire suppression, including steep areas, poor access and unsafe firefighting conditions. Optimise prescribed burning in areas beside access tracks and ridges to optimise bushfire attack opportunities and firefighter safety.   Prescribed burns can limit the extent/ width of the bushfire runs, reducing the rate of spread and spotting potential of the head fire.   Although prescribed burn areas can be outflanked as the bushfire grow, they often offer tactical opportunities for containment that would otherwise not have been available.
16. Streamline and fast-track prescribed burn planning and approvals process to ensure the timely conduct of town, city and asset protection burns. Undertake much greater use of small aircraft and drones for prescribed burning to increase rates and areas of prescribed burning to forests per year. Optimise utilisation of time, resources, drones, alliances, innovation and other measures to increase prescribed burning and vegetation treatment extent. Focus on avoiding excuses for reduced prescribed burning programs and get on with prescribed burning, mechanical treatment and grazing programs.
17. Reduce very high fuel loads/ strata, with huge contiguous areas of these fuels set up for intense bushfire runs such as many of the 2019/ 20 bushfires.
18. Work cooperatively to assist in reducing eucalypt decline and dense forest understories and bushfire risks. Undertake low intensity burning across landscapes to address eucalypt decline and reduce bushfire risks with dense understories associated with eucalypt decline.
19. Improve forest fire resilience.

Cooperative fuel management

20. Actively treat and reduce areas of heavy forest fuel which results in severe fire behaviour, fire brands and difficulty in the early suppression of bushfires, at and outside communities. Unless landscape fuel loads are treated, major community bushfires will continue to occur. Understand that long unburnt fuels in road verges and other vegetation corridors will very likely contribute to the extent of the impacts and intensities on assets and communities.
21. Optimise grazing in high risk/ hazard and threat bushfire areas across landscapes, adjacent to towns/ cities and areas within towns and cities to reduce fire risks.
22. Undertake ongoing dead tree removal work around communities to reduce bushfire risks.
23. Optimise bushfire safe landscaping around and within towns and around houses in many cases, reducing bushfire risks. Work with communities in relation to fire safe/ firewise gardens and reducing fuels, especially close to houses. Input to town and city bushfire design and landscaping and reduce non-fire safe species.

Cooperative adaptive management

24. Consider mechanical thinning dense forests and reducing the number of smaller trees and vegetation (and drought stress), noting that thinning lessens the intensity of future wildfires. Consider US approaches for resilient fire landscapes and safer communities for Australia, including low intensity burning and thinning.
25. Adopt valuable fire safe approaches and documents, including Can We Better Fire-Proof Our Country Towns? Using matches and machines to reduce fuel load and also AFPA (2020) Using Fire and Machines to Better Fire-Proof Our Country Towns, Australian Forest Products Association.

Optimise firefighter and community safety

26. Optimise the safety of fire-fighters, especially in relation to avoiding high fuel loads/ high bushfire intensities and reduce the enormous responsibility on incident controllers when deciding where to allocate firefighters. Optimise consider firefighters anchoring points in safe zones to put out spot fires and containment. Always question if staff and volunteers should be sent into highly hazardous bushfire conditions, especially where the governments, landowners and residents have not taken appropriate mitigating action beforehand.
27. Cooperatively reduce the huge areas of dead timber and fuels and dense regrowth from intense bushfires.
28. Increase community participation and locations of fire adapted communities such as adopted in the US.

Optimise fire trail and water network

29. Cooperatively ensure fire roads, trails and tracks are mapped/ tabulated in relation to extent, location, adequacy, access to vulnerable areas, barriers and maintenance for areas surrounding all bushfire communities and across landscapes.
30. Undertake required construction of new fire trails and accesses and ensure ongoing maintenance of current tracks and accesses. Look closely where fire roads, trails and tracks have been closed and seek reasons why/ recommendation further action if concerns are identified.
31. Undertake annual reviews of the location, volume and availability of water sources for bushfires and provide water storage locations.
32. Utilise temporary water storages where required for bushfire control.

Such opportunities assist in reducing disaster impacts and costs across towns and cities, infrastructure, forests, plantations and improve firefighter safety.