Fire and People

	Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment
	Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment

The green arms of the tall forests embrace Melbourne's east. Mostly this large natural area is considered as a beautiful and benign feature, however on scorching hot summer days in January and February each year, Melbourne holds its breath, for a mere wisp of smoke can herald a fiery horror. It can become a death trap for people caught in the path of a bushfire. Several times last century and again in 2009, severe weather combined with drought created bushfires way beyond the capacity of firefighters to control, claiming life and property and stirring the most dramatic of human emotions. Paradoxically, to the life of the tall forests this destruction means rebirth. The tall Mountain Ash does not regenerate naturally except through the agency of bushfire, when in its death throes the trees set seed in the smoking ash bed. Indeed even the tree's form and chemistry makes it highly flammable. On a hot summer’s day, living amongst the tall forest might be likened to living amongst a forest of live matches!

Fear

From the earliest European settlement of the forest, settlers were alert to the dangers of bush fires. Many of the bushfires they experienced were caused by fires lit deliberately which then spread out of control. The tall, foreboding timbers and the dense undergrowth created an enclosing, sometimes oppressive environment, and the eerie noise of a hot north wind blowing strongly through the trees on a stifling summer's day stirred feelings of danger and vulnerability.

Black Thursday 1850 Source - State Library of Victoria

The danger of loss of life increased after 1901 as timber companies built mills and associated settlements deep in the forest. Sometimes the only thread connecting the people of these timber communities with the outside world was a single timber tramway or narrow road, and settlements could be many miles from cleared paddocks or larger towns. The mill settlements were generally surrounded by piles of curing timber and heaps of sawdust - all flammable material. The companies were meant to provide 'dug-outs' for their employees and their families to use as a shelter in case of a bushfire, but sometimes companies ignored this requirement, or failed to construct dug outs. After the disastrous 1939 fires, a Royal Commission recommended that new mills not be established, and existing mills be removed from within fire prone forests. The result was that remote forest sawmill settlements where most lives were lost, were not rebuilt. Instead mills were located in larger, rural settlements outside the forest.

Fire fighting 1939 Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment		Blacks Spur Road 1939 fire Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment
West Healesville at night during 1939 fires Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment		Victims of 1939 fire Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment

Forest fires in Victoria have claimed many lives. Severe wildfires which occurred last century: 1909, 1919, 1926, 1939 and 1983 have all left their mark both on the memories of those who lived through them, and on the forest itself; the age of the trees identifying clearly the time of the most recent fire event. In 1926, 31 people died as a result of forest fires and in 1932, 9 people lost their lives. On 'Black Friday', 13 January 1939, fires engulfed much of the State's Mountain Ash forests burning over 2 million hectares. Seventy-one people lost their lives on that day across Victoria. In 1983, on 'Ash Wednesday', fires in forests and rural areas resulted in the deaths of 46 people, destroyed over 1700 homes, and burnt out thousands of hectares of pasture and forest. ‘Black Saturday’ February 7 2009 was the most devastating yet, claiming 173 lives. A Royal Commission into the Black Saturday fires headed by Justice Bernard Teague will deliver its recommendations in July 2010.

1983 Country Fire Authority (CFA) fighting a house fire in the Dandenongs Source - CFA

CFA postcard Source - CFA

Media headlines understandably focus on fire as an agent of destruction but rarely acknowledge fire as a natural part of the forest lifecycle. Bushfire is a natural, though infrequent feature of Victoria’s tall forests - a fact we ignore at our peril.

Response

The experience of surviving bushfire can profoundly influence the way people interact with the forest afterwards. Many leave the forest and choose to live in a rural or city setting. Others stay and rebuild. Fire agencies promote the message that home owners can survive bushfire provided they are well prepared and have an effective fire plan developed for their situation. Key to survival is making an early decision to either evacuate, or if well prepared, to stay and defend their property.

Forests Commission poster Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment		1997 fires clean up Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment		Fire Prevention means summer safety, CFA poster Source - CFA

People can respond to the possible threat of fire by:

• being aware of local municipal emergency plans
• developing community plans, procedures and facilities to provide evacuation and assembly areas
• preparing individual emergency plans
• maintaining houses to prevent the entry of burning materials
• clearing undergrowth and other combustible materials from around their homes
• having fire-fighting equipment such as petrol-driven pumps, sprinklers, hoses and an independent water supply
• building houses with appropriate design and fire-resistant materials
• supporting their local fire fighting service

Victoria is recognised as one of the most naturally fire prone environments in the world due to its vegetation and summer climate. But even with public awareness of this naturally high potential for fire, nearly three quarters of the fires started in this environment are due to human causes.

Victoria's two rural fire agencies, the CFA (Country Fire Authority) and the Department of Sustainability and Environment which operate on private land and the State's parks and forests respectively, have developed some of the most advanced techniques and equipment for fire suppression. These agencies cooperate in the forested interface between private and public land. They use tankers and fire fighters, water bombing aircraft, specialised helicopters, and heat sensing scanning equipment to help bring about control of fires in this environment. They also undertake strategic prevention works such as construction of fire breaks and fuel reduction burning which can assist in reducing fire intensity, slowing the fire's spread and providing fire fighters safer conditions to fight the fire. Local landholders must also play their part through minimising the fire hazards on their properties during the summer period.

Removing wood and leaf litter to create a line of bare earth which stops fire from spreading along the ground Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment

An Infrared scan showing a fire on Wilsons Promontory Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment

A helicopter dropping water on a fire Source - Department of Natural Resources and Environment

Where people live in forested areas and regularly burn or clear the land to prevent bush fires the local forest composition and the expected natural fire regime are altered. These areas are already subject to significant modification through clearing for housing and roads, mowing or slashing of grasses and understorey and the inevitable competition from introduced garden plants and weeds. Because Mountain Ash requires high intensity fires to regenerate naturally, it is interesting to consider the consequences for forest structure and biodiversity if bushfires are permanently excluded.