The hidden bushfire: inside the Blue Mountains backburn

[wildwanderer]

Interesting article from the SMH on the fire that burned the Grose Valley and mountain communities during last summer's bushfires.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the ... 56daa.html

[FatCanyoner]

I highly recommend people read this. I know Pete and Beth Raines -- in fact I caught up with both of them a couple days after Beth's house burnt down -- and they are two of the most knowledgeable and experienced volunteer firefighters I know of. The fact that RFS management refused to listen to their concerns, or the advice of local firefighters that this backburn should be done in a different manner to make it safer, should alarm everyone who lives in bushland areas.

Hopefully this media coverage, along with the efforts of the Independent Bushfire Group and others, results in the RFS review of this backburn being publicly released so the lessons can be learnt.

Several of the fires that destroyed houses over summer were actually escaped backburns. Admitting what went wrong and making changes to practices are vital for ensuring firefighting techniques are improved.

With climate change making fire conditions in Australia more extreme, we really need to get this stuff right if we want to protect lives and property.

[potato]

The old firefighting toolkit needs updating/rethinking. Climate change has made old methods such as prescribed burning, containment lines and backburns less effective to the point that their impact on controlling fires is negligible.

We need to focus our effort and money on assets and lives.

[wildwanderer]

I highly recommend people read this. I know Pete and Beth Raines -- in fact I caught up with both of them a couple days after Beth's house burnt down -- and they are two of the most knowledgeable and experienced volunteer firefighters I know of. The fact that RFS management refused to listen to their concerns, or the advice of local firefighters that this backburn should be done in a different manner to make it safer, should alarm everyone who lives in bushland areas.

Hopefully this media coverage, along with the efforts of the Independent Bushfire Group and others, results in the RFS review of this backburn being publicly released so the lessons can be learnt.

Several of the fires that destroyed houses over summer were actually escaped backburns. Admitting what went wrong and making changes to practices are vital for ensuring firefighting techniques are improved.

With climate change making fire conditions in Australia more extreme, we really need to get this stuff right if we want to protect lives and property.

While I agree with you, I do have some sympathy for the RFS HQ planning staff who were dealing with a massive and unprecedented fire situation and incredible workload. There would have been a lot of people (on the ground crews, local brigades HQs, NPWS, other emergency services, not to mention political pressure etc) providing input on the many fires and fronts that were occurring during that time. Im sure the volume of that input would have been overwhelming and its easy to see a bunker mentality occurring.. Where they shut all that out and just concentrate on the job at hand. Yes that ment good input (and this case life changing advice) was it seems ignored. But I agree there needs to be improvements in how input is received, processed and acted upon.

The old firefighting toolkit needs updating/rethinking. Climate change has made old methods such as prescribed burning, containment lines and backburns less effective to the point that their impact on controlling fires is negligible.

We need to focus our effort and money on assets and lives.

Agree the old methods and techniques don’t work anymore. Australian enviroment is now too hot and too dry. You can’t stop these massive fire fronts once they get going. The suggestion of investing in more early detection and initial attack crews and aircraft to immediately detect and engage a fire when its small and can still be put out seems to me to be sensible.

[north-north-west]

The suggestion of investing in more early detection and initial attack crews and aircraft to immediately detect and engage a fire when its small and can still be put out seems to me to be sensible.

Good luck with that.

[peregrinator]

The suggestion of investing in more early detection and initial attack crews and aircraft to immediately detect and engage a fire when its small and can still be put out seems to me to be sensible.

Good luck with that.

Yes, indeed. The technology exists (sensing hot spots via satellite), but as with measures to counteract climate change (not that it has anything to do increased bushfire activity!), the political will is severely lacking.

[Hughmac]

The fires that burned through Balmoral Village and Lake Conjola were also the result of backburns undertaken by the RFS. Deliberately starting fires in those conditions just beggars belief, and no surprise at the outcome.

[commando]

Anyone who really understands bushfires knows that a bushfires main spread of travel is through the eucalyptus canopy
which is highly flammable, and makes the fire front up to a 50 metre high wall of flame burning the undergrowth is useless,
all is does is kill off all the wildlife and starts real bushfires again. Backburning needs to STOP...

Just curious whether its the same Government Department who authorize back burns, then says we have a Global Warming problem.

[yogibarnes]

Not so. A crown fire, as "Anyone who really understands bushfires" will know, under adverse weather conditions are sustained by the middle layers of fuel. Take out the middle layers and the crown fire will, over a distance, drop to become a ground fire. This is why appropriate fuel reduction, by burning or otherwise, works. The fire's resulting reduced heat intensity, slower rate of spread and less "spotting" gives fire fighters more time and a chance to safely move in and try to deal with the fire front. There have been many field examples over the years to demonstrate it.