Lessons to learn from bushfires

A REPORT into last summer’s devastating bushfires has found shortcomings in the response to two major fires that burned 65,000ha and threatened a Tasmanian town.

The Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council review of the bushfires was tabled in State Parliament yesterday.

The report praised the work of emergency services in minimising the impact of the fires on life, property and natural heritage, but called for better co-ordination and financial management of bushfire fighting.

“The review heard, almost without exception, high praise for the efforts of the firefighters and volunteers on the ground,” it noted.

Tasmania’s summer bushfire crisis was the worst in the state since the 1967 Black Tuesday fires, and stretched from Christmas Eve until March 23.

Six homes were lost, 1300km of roads impacted, 1400 people presented to evacuation centres and 95,000ha of bush was burned.

More than 2000 Tasmania Fire Service and State Emergency Services staff and volunteers were deployed, plus hundreds of Parks and Wildlife Service, Sustainable Timbers Tasmania, interstate and overseas personnel.

The fires cost $60 million to fight, of which $40 million was spent on aircraft. The report found that no amount of resources would have been enough to contain the fires.

“While there are reasoned arguments for increasing Tastime, as none was based in the state: “It is not possible to say that an AIG aircraft would have identified the hot spots that later flared up, or made any difference to the outcome, although it would certainly have presented an additional opportunity to do so,” the report said.

But it said the early response to the Pear Hill fire, west of Geeveston, was inadequate. That fire joined up with the Riveaux Road fire which eventually burned through 31,000ha and surrounded Geeveston for days.

“We did not think that the weight of attack on the Pear Hill ignition could be described as ‘hitting it hard and fast’,” it said.

“This was reflected in the fact that crews on the ground were unable to extinguish this fire or stop its slow spread.

“TFS was aware of the fire’s potential but does not appear to have taken steps to ensure that resources were directed to the fire proportionate to that potential.

“The PWS [Parks and Wildlife Service] and STT [Sustainable Timbers Tasmania] crews on the ground do not appear to have had an understanding of the threat that this fire posed.”

The report made nine recommendations, including the creation of a corps of volunteer remote area firefighters, better delineation of roles during major incidents, the creation of a specialist air unit and the construction of a purpose-built State Control Centre for emergency management.

It also recommended that a single agency — the Tasmania Fire Service — be given overarching responsibility for major incidents.