Inciweb: Australia Firefighting Assistance Update - 748,417 acres

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Summary

National Interagency Fire Center Coordinates Firefighting Assistance Request from Australia

On February 11, 2009, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, received a request for assistance from Australia, in the wake of unprecedented fire activity in the southeastern part of Australia. Wildfires in Australia have claimed at least 200 lives since February 7.

On February 13, the United States sent 60 wildfire specialists to Australia to meet this request.

The American specialists that were deployed include wildland fire personnel with expertise operations, planning and logistics, two thirteen-person interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams specializing in stabilizing and rehabilitating burned areas, and one 20-person suppression firefighting crew.

The specialists, all from federal agencies, came from throughout the United States. Their length of deployment will be up to 35 days.

"We're grateful for the opportunity to assist Australia during a difficult wildfire situation," said Lyle Carlile, the fire director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at NIFC. Carlile chairs an interagency group at NIFC with the responsibility of coordinating national wildfire response.

"Since 2000, Australia has sent wildfire specialists several times to help the U.S. in some of our worst fire seasons. We are pleased that we can reciprocate," he added.

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Interagency BAER-Emergency Stabilization & Rehabilitation Teams

Burned ∙ Area ∙ Emergency ∙ Response ∙ (BAER)

Australia Support 2009

MISSION

The two BAER-Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation teams are comprised of the following federal US Department of Interior agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS), National Park Service (NPS); and the US Department of Agriculture agency: Forest Service (USFS). Each team is made up of a variety of specialists such as soil scientists, hydrologists, geologists, biologists, geographic information system specialists, archeologist, botanist, silviculturist, research engineer, and civil engineer. The two BAER teams are very experienced specialists that are highly effective in conducting rapid assessments and analyses.

The emergency stabilization-rehabilitation teams are working with the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Country Fire Authority (CFA), and Parks Victoria (PV) to supplement their agency field officers in accessing the burned area assessments on public and private lands.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The objective for the United States (US) Interagency BAER-Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation teams is to support and supplement Victoria State agencies in their analysis of the post-fire effects from as many fire areas as our deployment timeframe permits.

Our specific objectives are to:

· Share a methodology and process for assessing post-fire impacts and identifying treatment objectives by sharing tools such as satellite imagery, erosion models, and monitoring methodologies

· Identify site specific treatment objectives and potential treatments for public and private lands

· Learn from our Australian counterparts about the tools and resources they use to respond to post-fire emergencies

· Incorporate our Australian counterparts and team members from the States of Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory

PROCESS

• Review several Public Land Rehabilitation Plans and the Code of Practice to understand the framework for post fire rehabilitation efforts in Australia
• Work with the IMT, DSE, CFA, State Government, Parks Victoria, and local landowners to conduct field assessments
• Identify impacts to assets (roads, bridges, homes), watershed and biodiversity conditions, erosion potential, weed invasion, archaeological, historical, indigenous, cultural sites and values, and rare or threatened species or communities
• Determine potential threats to life and property, and identify treatment objectives and potential treatments to mitigate or reduce the risk
• Prepare a report of our findings characterizing the threatening processes - severity, likelihood, immediacy

Some of the tools we use to prioritize our field review include obtaining satellite landsat imagery that compares pre-fire to post-fire vegetative conditions resulting in soil burn severity maps that locate areas of potential impacts.

Basic Information

Incident Type	Wildland Fire
Cause	Lightning/under Investigation
Date of Origin	Saturday February 07th, 2009 aprox 12:00 AM
Location	Victoria State - Australia
Incident Commander	Victoria State Dse

Current Situation

Size

748,417 acres

Significant Events

MONDAY 2 MARCH 2009: is a day of Total Fire Ban across Victoria. The weather forecast for Monday night and into Tuesday is for very strong north to north westerly winds with temperatures expected to reach the mid to high 30’s, followed by a south-westerly wind change later on Tuesday afternoon bringing possible lightning storms. STATEWIDE FIRE SITUATION SUMMARY: Information last updated:2/03/2009 9:07:11 AM This season there have been 623 fires attended by the Department, 130 of these are yet to be declared safe. FIRE STATUS - NUMBER: GOING: 4 CONTAINED: 7 CONTROLLED: 99 SAFE: 460 SAFE - NOT FOUND: 24 SAFE - FALSE ALARM: 9 NOT FOUND: 20 UNKNOWN: 0 FIRE STATUS DEFINITIONS: * GOING: A Going fire is spreading on an external edge, in whole or in part. * CONTAINED: A Contained fire is not spreading beyond the perimeter or an external edge but requires continuous suppression action to bring about a "Controlled" situation. * CONTROLLED: A Controlled fire requires routine patrol including occasional mopping up work.

Outlook

Planned Actions

GOING FIRES: KILMORE EAST- MURRINDINDI COMPLEX SOUTH: Awareness message at 5.00 am Monday 2 March 2009: Residents in the Yarra Valley including communities in the vicinity of Toolangi, Castella, Fernshaw, Healesville, Don Valley, Mount Toolebewong, Badger Creek, Woori Yallock, Seville, Wandin, Coldstream, Yarra Glen, Yeringberg, Gruyere, Dixons Creek, Steels Creek and Chum Creek need to be aware that fire activity continues behind control lines in the area. No properties in the Yarra Valley are under threat at this time. Residents in the Warburton Valley including communities in the vicinity of Launching Place, Yarra Junction, Wesburn, Millgrove, Warburton, Warburton East, McMahons Creek, Reefton, Gladysdale, Hoddles Creek, Yellingbo and Big Pats Creek need to be aware that fire activity continues behind control lines in the area. No properties in the Warburton Valley are under threat at this time. DSE and CFA are reminding communities in the areas surrounding the fires to activate their bushfire survival plans as another day of severe weather moves into Victoria tomorrow. If you choose to leave, leave early, well before a fire is in your area. Noojee-Powelltown Road is partially closed at Tarango Road. The Recovery Centre at Yarra Glen Memorial Hall will be open today. Community Meetings: Kinglake - Municipal Office - 12:00pm and 4:00pm daily Kinglake West - Kinglake West Fire Station - 2:00pm daily Whittlesea – Whittlesea Relief Centre - 7.00pm Monday 2 March Warburton – Mechanics Hall – 6.00pm Monday 2 & Wednesday 4 March Healesville – Queens Park – 6.00pm Monday 2 & Wednesday 4 March. KILMORE EAST-MURRINDINDI COMPLEX NORTH: Awareness Message at 12.00am Monday 2 March 2009: The Kilmore East – Murrindindi Complex North fire is still going and is currently about 165,000 ha in size. Backburning work has been carried out overnight in the Dingo Track area North of Torbreck Station and will continue today. Residents in the Eildon to Mansfield area may experience smoke from this backburning. Significant smoke and some flame may be visible from the Eildon, Goughs Bay, Jamieson and Mansfield areas. The priority is to contain breaches along the north eastern edge of the fire North of Torbreck Station in the Big River area west of Burnt Bridge, ahead of gale force winds and higher temperatures that are forecast for Tuesday. The weather forecast for today includes northeast to southeast winds up to 25 kilometres per hour later turning northeast to northwesterly around midday. Wind speed will increase later in the afternoon. Tuesday’s forecast is for very strong winds from the north to northwest, temperatures in the mid to high 30s and then a strong south-westerly wind change later in the afternoon. Isolated lightning storms are forecast for the afternoon and evening. The wind change and its strength may lead to serious fire danger for communities along the north-eastern side of this fire, including: Jamieson to Woods Point areas, Howqua / Macs Cove and Goughs Bay. These communities are not presently under any direct threat. However, residents living in isolated areas with very limited road access should prepare for this potential threat to arrive from early Tuesday morning. Residents need to take serious note of Tuesday’s conditions, prepare bushfire plans early Monday and be prepared to activate their plans on Tuesday, if necessary. Community Meetings will be held at: Eildon - Eildon Community Centre (Centre Avenue, Eildon) – 3pm Monday 2 March Alexandra - Alexandra Shire Hall (Grant Street, Alexandra) – 5pm Monday 2 March Mansfield - Mansfield Shire Council Chambers (33 Highett Street, Mansfield) 6pm Monday 2 March. BUNYIP RIDGE FIRE: Awareness Message at 4.00pm Sunday 1 March 2009: The Bunyip Ridge fire is burning in the Bunyip State Park and State Forest areas between Gembrook, Powelltown, Neerim Junction and Tonimbuk and is estimated to be approximately 26,200 hectares in size with a perimeter of approximately 167 kms. It is burning within control lines. Crews from DSE, CFA, Tasmania and NSW have been blacking out edges and hotspots. This fire is not currently posing a threat to communities. WILSONS PROMONTORY NATIONAL PARK-CATHEDRAL RANGE: Awareness message at 9.00 am on Sunday 1 March 2009: The Wilsons Prom Cathedral fire is now estimated to be 24 800ha, and remains one kilometre from the Tidal River settlement and 6 km south of the Yanakie entrance station. There is no immediate threat to the Yanakie settlement. Today crews have been deployed to the Yanakie Isthmus as south-west winds could cause flare-ups as the fire begins to burn close to volatile vegetation in Telegraph Swamp, adjacent to Corner Inlet. Wilsons Promontory remains closed to visitors. MUSKVALE HOGANS RD FIRE: Awareness message at 5.00pm on Sunday 1 March 2009: The Muskvale Hogan’s Rd fire is currently under control and is being regularly patrolled. Mild conditions have allowed fire fighters to strengthen control lines. Blacking out to 60 metres and beyond has continued today with crews from the DSE and ACT Emergency Services Authority Task Force. Fresh crews from the ACT arrive tonight to continue the mop up in preparation for the extreme fire danger expected on Tuesday. Community meetings for Monday 2 March: Trentham - Mechanics Institute, 66 High St Trentham 5pm Daylesford - ARC, Smith St 7pm.

Remarks

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) manages fire on Victoria's 7.6 million hectares of public land, or roughly one third of the State. This includes reducing the risk of fire, containing outbreaks and managing environmental effects. Fire Suppression Victoria’s experience with wildfire over the last 150 years has seen the development of firefighting methods in its State’s parks and forests that are considered to be some of the most advanced and effective of their kind in the world. Following its detection, wildfire suppression on public land includes all activities that are connected with extinguishing a wildfire and making it safe. The Department of Sustainability and Environment's (DSE) Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land Revision No 1 (2006), states that the response to all wildfires on or threatening public land must be planned and conducted according to the following principles: * wildfires to be brought under control; * control of wildfires to be given priority over all other Departmental activities; * upon detection of a wildfire, control action to be safe, fast, determined and thorough, with the primary objective of controlling the fire in the shortest possible time with due regard given to management cost objectives, environmental values and effectiveness; * fire suppression will include the provision of accurate and timely information to local communities; * where appropriate, local knowledge will be actively sought to inform incident control decisions. Fire suppression must be carried out in accordance with an Incident Action Plan, prepared following consideration of: * firefighter safety; * current and predicted fire behaviour; * assets and values at risk from the wildfire or suppression activities; * management objectives for the area; * esources available locally and through broader emergency arrangements; * suppression methods most appropriate to the area; * known local community concerns and interests; * cost effectiveness; * likelihood of success of alternative. suppression methods. Highly trained planners and firefighters, the use of the latest technology and continuous updating of equipment, techniques and methods maintain this effectiveness.