Before going any further I must say that my criticism is of governments and departmental executive management and not firefighters on the ground who work their guts out, in some cases put their safety at risk and sadly some make the supreme sacrifice to protect life and property.
First, going overseas to put the subject of this posting in context, I'm drawn to the Grenfell Tower fire in London early on 14 June 2017, where at least 70 people lost their lives in the tower.
From the Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Phase 1 Report two issues stand out to me, the contribution of fuel to the spread of fire and the performance of the London Fire Brigade. If time-poor you can listen to a video statement on the Phase 1 report by the Inquiry Chairman: Sir Martin Moore-Bick.
It took the London Fire Brigade a short few hours to get it's emergency response sorted out, but in that time at least 71 people lost their lives. And, the flammability of the cladding and other structural faults contributed to the development and spread of the fire. Sound familiar?
There's another fire service much closer to home in my case that failed in its response to major fires and neglected reducing the wildfire threat due to fuel accumulation in National Parks and government administered forests in the State of Victoria. Here, I'm referring to the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning , otherwise known as DELWP, Victoria.
Within DELWP is Forest Fire Management . Now, I'll draw a parallel with the London Fire Brigade prior to the Grenfell Tower fire, the LFB response took a short few hours to get its response act together, whereas DELWP took days, and months to make a meaningful response to some of those outbreaks of fire, fire spread and suppression difficulty growing accordingly.
Fuel in the form of flammable cladding was very largely responsible for the intensity and spread of the Grenfell Tower fire. There are materials testing procedures and building design requirements to prevent a Grenfell Tower situation.
There can be no doubt that the intensity and spread of wildfire in Victoria alone is due to buildup of fuel in forests and National Parks and the threat it presents.
Though Plates 2, 3 and 4 were photographed in July 2017 I have revisited the sites as recently as September 2019 and am confident that the fuel hazard remains.
FUEL
Referring to the fire triangle (above), in both structural fire and wildfire environments the availability of fuel is the major contributor to fire intensity and spread. For wildfire, there is really only one practical and effective treatment, reduce the fuel!
Stay tuned.
As always, I would welcome your feedback.
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I fully concur with you comments. As a former farmer and a fire officer with atotal service of 38 years . nineteen of which on the staff of the Country Fire Authority in which I served 8 years in fire protectio and7 years in field duty being 5 years as the office in Charge of the Mallee I feel qualified to concur with your comments Maurice Coster
ReplyDeleteThank you John the photographs tell the story Early in my term as Forests Minister I called a Ministerial Councilto provide them with a briefing by a leading Fire Fighter who had returned from secondment in the US during the Yellowstone Wild fires whom pleaded for both Hazard reduction AND ACCESS AND HEAVY EQUIPMENT FOR FIRE FIGHTERS The reply to this Repression assistance was "if we have to touch one tree we wont do it" Have you ever considered the 10 Regional Forest agreements (RFAs) that were signed by the States and Commonwealth and or discovered the extent to which the States honored them
ReplyDeleteFuel for a fire is really only what we can have much control over, apart from rapid, in depth fire suppression when needed.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot control the weather nor ignition sources, generally.
Fire is one way to reduce fuel. Grazing is another. Mechanical means also.
Having been involved, for many years, as a fire officer, CFA staff & volunteer, and having been involved especially in fire prevention, it is my opinion that fire prevention standards have fallen generally across Victoria over the past decade or two. One reason is legislative changes leading to ‘grassroots’ standards falling. The demise of Regional & Municipal Fire Prevention Committees has been a backward step. The rank & file members now believe they cannot properly get involved as in the past.
Municipal Councils, in many areas, are now dominated by ‘green’ councillors and staff - this has led to a softly, softly approach and too many obstacles to reduce hazards. In fact discouragement in many areas. It has also impacted on the performance if some Municipal Fire Prevention Officers and their ability to perform,.
There are aspects too ,but I will save that for another day..
- Peter Rice AFSM
Alexandra Vic. 3714