Think the state survived fire season unscathed? Here’s why

Crews battled to stop fires before they made more devastating impact, says Chris Arnol

THE bushfire emergencies last week in NSW and Victoria are a stark reminder of the bushfire threat we face on the east coast of Australia.

Tasmanians would be forgiven for thinking we escaped the 2017-18 season largely unscathed, because on the surface we did.

The outlook we provided in September played out almost to the letter. We were expecting several days where the fire danger rating would reach Severe fire danger level and some total fire ban days. TFS declared four days of total fire ban this summer, and on those days we responded to 50 vegetation fires and stopped them in their tracks. Each one of those fires had the very real risk of having a significant impact on our communities.

In the lead-up to these bad fire days we worked together with our partner agencies SES, Tasmania Police, Parks and Wildlife and Sustainable Timber Tasmania to plan for the worst.

We doubled the fire brigade response to any fires, prepositioned strike teams of fire crews and aircraft near the areas at greatest risk, and we threw every resource we could in our initial response to each fire start, both on the ground and from the air. We also stood up incident management teams and regional operations centres to centrally co-ordinate our response.

We call this approach a “rapid weight of response”, and this summer that strategy worked. This meant we were able to get on top of fires quickly and keep them small, reducing workforce fatigue and potential loss to communities. The upfront investment in this rapid response approach saves us dollars in the long run.

We planned to avoid the campaign fires that can run for days and weeks at a time, allowing our crews to go home to their families at the end of each day.

Over the summer months while Tasmanians were enjoying their recreation time doing what Tasmanians do, at beaches and shacks, we responded to 1130 vegetation fires and stopped them in their tracks.

TFS is lucky enough to have 5000 volunteers to call upon, and along with our 300 career firefighters, science experts and administrative staff, I thank each and every one of them for the contribution they make to keeping Tasmania safe.

We must also not forget our main partner in this — the Tasmanian public. An

increasing number of Tasmanians are engaging with our brigades and community programs such as Bushfire-Ready Neighbourhoods, and heeding our advice to prepare their properties for bushfires. Whether that is developing a bushfire survival plan, conducting a fuel reduction burn, or creating a defendable space around the home, it all makes a difference.

We cannot thank the Tasmanian community enough for being our partner in this. With the growing threat of climate change, we need your help more than ever to share the responsibility for bushfire readiness.

As our days become shorter and cooler and we see more rain in the coming weeks, we will declare an end to the fire permit period in stages across the state, which traditionally signifies the end of bushfire season. TFS, PWS and SST have moved into what we now call ‘fuel reduction season’ — a program with the social license to reduce the bushfire risk in Tasmania. Autumn is fuel reduction season because the weather is more stable and the fires, which are burning at a low intensity in dryer conditions, produce a lot less smoke.

I understand that smoke from any type of fire can cause health concerns for some people. However, our experts plan these burns carefully to ensure the impact of smoke on communities is minimised. Personally I would rather see the smoke from a wellmanaged fuel reduction burn, than smoke from an uncontrolled bushfire threatening life and property, and research we have undertaken tells us that the majority of Tasmanians agree.

For information on Tasmania’s fuel reduction program and to find out where we are burning and when, visit www.fire.tas.gov.au