Page 2973 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 20 September 2006
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Finally, our emergency service response agencies are equipped with additional tankers using the most advanced firefighting technology available. Six rural compressed air foam, or CAF, tankers are operational in the ACT, providing the ability to rapidly lay down foam to protect assets. Two helicopters are deployed to the ACT over the critical period of the fire season.
Training of bushfire fighters has elevated significantly in recent years with the adoption of national standards for firefighters. The ACT has led an Australasian Fire Authorities Council project to develop best practice for training in Australasian interagency incident management systems and has high levels of training in incident management as well as front-line response.
Clear objectives are set for the protection of assets in the ACT based on a range of factors, such as the length and direction of fire runs to the interface, the slope and aspect of the land, the type and flammability of vegetation, the land management objectives and adjacent land use. From a sound understanding of these issues, a flexible approach to asset protection is achieved. As clearly stated in the strategic bushfire management plan, asset protection zones are defined. This can be found in the appendices to the plan. The zone consists of three parts—the house asset protection zone, the inner asset protection zone and the outer asset protection zone.
Based on the modelling of fire paths and past history, the urban interface has been classified into three classes that reflect the level of exposure to bushfires. For example, bushfire threat to a north-west facing property on the interface is significantly greater than to a south-east facing property in inner Canberra. These exposure classes, not guesswork, determine the width of fuel management within a zone and their priority in the overall territory context.
Homeowners too must do their part to ensure their yards and buildings are defendable. This is vital in the house asset protection zone, and extensive advice has been provided to the community to assist in achieving effective outcomes. This is where shared responsibility comes in. Bushfire protection is the responsibility of all, not just of government agencies.
The inner asset protection zone, which can be up to 30 metres wide, is intensively managed for fuel reduction. This zone provides firefighters and homeowners with an effective defensible space in which they can fight a fire safely and effectively by reducing the flame height and intensity. The outer asset protection zone—30 metres out and beyond—is designed to reduce the intensity of the approaching fire and, critically, it reduces the intensity of ember attack. As shown by the January 2003 fires, as well as other fires, ember attack is the major contributor to house loss, with over 90 per cent of properties lost through ember attack, rather than direct flame contact. The outer zone aims to manage this component through managing fuels sometimes up to 300 metres from the primary interface in an attempt to mitigate ember attack.
The differing widths of these zones are based on sound science to reflect the appropriate measure to reduce bushfire threat. They are based on work undertaken by the CSIRO and experts on fire behaviour. They also reflect reality, not just a figure plucked out of the air. The location of zones and exposure classes were considered and determined by
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