Sharing the science on bushfires to improve prevention

Sharing the science on bushfires to improve prevention

15 October 2013

published by www.abc.net.au


Australia — Scientists are using a symposium in Canberra to teach less experienced fire fighters about the latest bushfire research.

The event is being held by the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre and the CSIRO.

Deputy chief officer of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, Joe Buffone says fire operations staff are rarely the first to learn about new scientific studies.

“Apart from anything else, we’re actually in a different time,” he said.

“We can’t actually go out into the bush and throw matches in and start looking at how a fire will operate and will progress. We actually have to rely on the science and then learn from some of the current big fires that we’ve had in the last decade.”

CSIRO senior researcher, Andrew Sullivan says the science being discussed at the symposium covers a number of areas.

“So it may well have been published in scientific journals but hasn’t yet filtered down to their standard training,” he said.

“It covers everything from fire weather…talks about understanding the change in moisture content across the landscape…right through to models for predicting how fast fires will spread.”
 


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