The Upcoming Bushfire Season

Almost four years on from Black Saturday, what does this year’s summer hold for Victoria?

Since Black Saturday

We’ve had some relatively mild summers since February/March 2009. Considering the tragedy of Black Saturday, that’s been a good thing as the Victorian community recovered from the trauma and heartbreak of our worst bushfires ever.

Most Recently

It’s only early October as I write this, but last Friday the CFA were kept busy with our first higher-temperature day of the season. They handled the day well, with good results under control quickly.
On the other hand, up in New South Wales on the same day, it wasn’t going quite so easy. The community of Wyee was endangered for at least a day, with cool weather on the Saturday bringing the needed assist.

Queensland and South Australia, too, had their share of work to do against bushfires as well over the weekend.

Again, it’s only early October. There’s still all the way through to March to get through yet.

SMEM

The social media aspect of emergencies is starting to improve greatly, with more and more emergency services adding Twitter and Facebook to their communications arsenals. Social Media Emergency (SMEM) is coming a long way since most of us had to think on our feet and learn at the deep end back in February 2009.

Then again, social media proved an asset in early 2011, with the amount of natural disasters hitting the Australasian/Oceania region in the first quarter of last year. Victoria, instead of having to face bushfires, instead faced floods, as did Queensland and especially Brisbane. Then came the Christchurch earthquake, followed by Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant problems.

The amount of Twitter and Facebook volunteers, in each of these countries or abroad, showed how social media could work with mainstream forms of emergency communication.

Complimentary Role Of Social Media

There’s definitely a complimentary role for social media to play in this field. Accent on the word complimentary…as it would be impractical to replace proven radio and other systems entirely with social media.

The Upcoming Season

Still, it’s hoped that the 2012/2013 summer brings less disaster than early 2011…I can remember being pooped completely after three months of having to relay emergency information on Twitter back then and I can tell you how exhausting it gets. That’s just the communications side…you can imagine how it would be for those in the front line, the firefighters, the emergency services (SES) people, nurses, doctors and police in any of the situations our region faced almost two years ago.

Also, just remember it’s up to each of us to be prepared and respect the conditions we have in such seasons. Fireready, firesafe.

And let’s hope the bushfire season in Australia is a quiet one.


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