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.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Black Saturday Anniversary

I've just come back from the commemorative service at Flowerdale, stopping in for a short time at Kinglake, Kinglake West and Whittlesea. Today was the first anniversary of Black Saturday.

There are times when words are inadequate, even on a day when we pause to remember the lives of so many lost a year ago.

What follows are the only two photos that felt okay to take in both Flowerdale and Kinglake. These are more eloquent.

Flowerdale, Sunday February 7, 2010.

Kinglake, also Sunday February 7, 2010.

First anniversary of Black Saturday and the loss of over 170 lives to bushfire.

Not Long Till The Next Fire Season...

It's now weeks before the expected start of the next bushfire season.

We'd like to hope we're more ready for it than we were last season. If sensible people have learnt any lesson from February, it's that any potential bushfire fuel should be cleared well before the expected time. Thankfully, some immediate recommendations from the Bushfires Royal Commission regarding that are already being implemented, with some people already starting to clear such fuel from the immediate surrounds of homes in potentially-affected areas. The CFA is also working on fuel-reduction as well.

Recommendations concerning better warning systems, though, might be problematic to implement in time for technical reasons. However, things like Twitter and some of the other social media will be ready and the volunteers from February and March will be amongst the earliest responders monitoring and ready to provide important safety information. People will know a bit better in coming months that Twitter can be highly effective.

We've already heard that it is expected to be a potentially-worse season than the last. That doesn't mean we want it to turn out like Black Saturday. Far from it. People will be more vigilant, quicker to respond and move.

In the meantime there are two regional hearings of the Royal Commission, at Myrtleford and Horsham. At a later date, there will be a hearing in the Gippland area.

After the 21st of September, the Commission will investigate deaths from the last bushfires, with the intent to evaluate the "stay or go" policy.

Let's hope this next season, some commonsense enables more to be done to protect lives and make the upcoming season far safer than the last. But let's not just hope, let's do.

Bushfires - The Next Season

Victoria has barely started the recovery from one bushfire season before being told, this week, to expect an upcoming season that could be potentially worse.

I suppose a lot of people are praying for a LOT of Spring rain and for milder temperatures than what is expected. However, prayer's one thing...giving God a hand by doing some safety-oriented preparation is another.

But essentially, the State of Victoria, as individuals and as a community will have to prepare and work hard to ensure we do NOT get a repeat of February 2009.

That may mean even the staunchest conservationist thinking about clearing a safety buffer between his home and dangerous trees which become fire fuel. It may mean making sure emergency sirens are ready to warn any small town at a moment's notice, hang former regulations on not disturbing people.

It means emergency communications being better able to handle things than back in February. It means better planning by the relevent authories and getting their acts together.

It means learning some valuable lessons from February and applying them. NOT ignoring them.

The thing is, next fire season, we can't be at the level of complacency we were at before February 7, 2009.

The Bushfires Royal Commision - Mid June 2009...

Before we get into the topic, this blog has been set up as a continuation of volunteer work started back in February, when I was helping out on Twitter relaying important information via three key bushfire-related hashtags.

I would have preferred keeping this topic range over on my Wordpress blog, but unfortunately there is no way to use Friendfeed widgets over there. Having discovered them today, I find it helpful having some resources to feed to here via such widgets, but for some reason, Wordpress doesn't allow the embedding of such things.

Anyway, in the months since the February 2009 Victorian bushfires, people are still recovering from losses, both personal and materially. There have been numerous documentaries on TV, plus testimony arising from the Royal Commision into the fires. Today I begin documenting such things, utilizing the technology available through current social media.

Where available, discussion via the Friendfeed widget will enable people to see the various opinions on such matters.

First off, a link to the actual Royal Commision website:


Next, an eyewitness account from the Kinglake end of the fires:


And one of today's accounts from the Royal Commission:


However, this next item would raise a few needed questions:


The Royal Commission continues.

Real-time discussion on this post: