The Victorian Bushfires - Case Study Example

Victoria bushfires, Australia Student name: Student number: Subject: CLS310 Date: The questions of the essay are: Answer the following questions: 1. Describe the incident you have selected. 2. Identify the hazard, the risk, the event, the impact and the damage for this incident. 3. Critically analyse the response of three emergency services to this incident. The pre-hospital emergency care response must be one of the three. Was there any room for improvement in any of these responses? Justify your answer with reference to the actual response. If you were the ambulance commander, would you have managed this incident differently? Description of the incident A greater percentage of fire outbreaks are mainly caused by favourable weather conditions that support the ignition and spread of fire. For instance, high temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius with wind of high speed that ranges from 100 to 110 km/h (Department of Agriculture, 2007). The Victorian bushfires being a worst incident broke out on February 7, 2009, which brought in one of the worst disasters in Australia. Large tracks of land together with vegetation that was covering the soil were ravaged by the fires. Documented information revealed that from the 173 human lives that were lost in the fire series that struck Australia, 120 were from the Black fire Bushfires that struck on Saturday. During that day, gale-force southwesterly wind with a speed exceeding 120km/h was experienced. The fire had at first escaped the town but due to change in wind, direction thus caused eastern flanks of the fires to increase extensively (Ker, 2009). The fire was estimated to have destroyed at least 3500 structures. The state’s capital Melbourne was reduced due to fire outbreak. Neighbouring towns were also seriously damaged (Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission 2009). From the known townships, 78 of them were affected and at least 7500 people relocated from the scene. A bigger ratio from the displaced persons sought temporary accommodations (Q&A: Victorian bushfires 2009). The fire must have been caused by either power lines that clashed with one another or cigarettes smokers who my have thrown butts into the dry vegetation thereby lighting up (Moncrief, 2009). Lightning also may have caused the fire. It was witnessed that drought had persisted in the region for over a decade with a five decades of domestic warming. These likelihoods are expected to have caused the fire (Relief and Recovery 2009). (Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, 2009) One of those who took part in fire-fighting exercise is emergency management team of Victoria. Their effort at managing the disaster was clearly reviewed in a number of journal papers. Disaster management is one of the most crucial elements in any government system. It helps to prevent disasters and minimize their impact on the people and on society in general. Based on this incident, critical analysis on the disaster management efforts of three emergency respondents are to be reviewed. From this critical analysis, a personal opinion on how the disaster should have been managed shall also be presented (Health Lessons from Black Saturday, 2009). The Victorian bushfires (Black Saturday) is listed the most devastating fires that have ever been experienced in Australia. Basing on a number of sources, the disaster was contributed by natural and fabricated forces, which resulted into the eruption of fire outbreak that struck Australian forest. Basing on unnamed Commission, Victoria has had a lengthy history of bushfires and the conditions on the 7th of February 2009 were such that they set-up that day to be intense and humid enough for fires to break out all over the region. The dry vegetation due to drought and strong winds resulted to the sudden outbreaks of the fire and strong human activities resulted to the lifting of firebrands. The strong winds in the upper atmosphere carried burning spark downwind over long distances at the end creating more fires and supporting the phenomenon of fire spotting. The firebrands were spread by the strong winds from one area to another (Nichols & Nick2009). The fires in the Victorian area were of different sizes and effect; the worse of these fires however were rapidly spread after ignition (O’Neill, 2009). These fires also crowned forested areas, which could not be easily accessed by the fire crews (Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, 2009). Powerful convection columns were seen above the fires; significant forward spotting was seen because of the fuel type, weather conditions, and topography; in the afternoon of Saturday, wind direction changed and further spread the fire (Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, 2009). Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) revealed that high temperature of over 45 degrees, and the air was also extremely dry on that particular day (CSIRO, 2009). Coupled with the low rainfall in the area, it was rife with tinder-dry fuel, which was so easily ignited and difficult to extinguish. Moreover, a cold front was also making it pass down to the state and churned up strong winds over the region (CSIRO, 2009). (About Black Saturday, 2009) Generally, Black Saturday Bushfires are different major fires occurring across different parts of Victoria. About 78 communities and numerous towns were affected by these fires. There were about 400 inhabitants injured by these fires. Conditions before the fire were also investigated by authorities and they revealed in their reports that the exceptional heat wave that week leading up to the Victorian fires prompted the authorities to deploy most of their fire fighters into different parts of Victoria; and they were cautioned to stay on the alert for possible fires breaking out (Bureau of Meteorology, 2009). A warning by their Premier even cautioned the state on the possibility of extreme weather conditions with the heat wave and the strong winds which were about to hit them (Moncrief, 2009). All these preparations however were insufficient to contain the intensity and the wide coverage of these fires thus turning the incident one of the worse disasters in Australian history. Hazard The hazard here can first be detailed as natural because it was greatly contributed by high temperature. The long period of drought also created dry tinder for easy ignition of fire. Dry atmosphere and vegetation causing heat were fabricated at some extent as far as global warming is concerned. Human activities such as greenhouse emit harmful gas and is trapped inside including heat which otherwise should have been released into the space, leading to air being warm in the atmosphere. Extremely warm temperature results into the extreme weather conditions that was experienced, as well as extended seasons of dry weather in Australia before the fires hit. Lack of rainfall partially attributed to the dissipation of rain clouds and the extended dry season extreme weather conditions experienced in different parts of the world. Risk The risk refers to objective or subjective probability that an occurrence of bad may happen. Basing on the incident, the risk of fire outbreak that time relied on a number of factors. First was because there was directed to the extreme weather conditions experienced. The probability of somebody igniting a fire was very high. Secondly was the risk of someone not putting out campfire on strong winds hence fire spreading to other places. Thirdly, the risks seen during the fire were highly significant to the occurrence of fire outbreak. For fire outbreak to occur, at least three factors can sustain it: flammable materials, heat to cause; and oxygen to aid in burning. The disaster had flammable materials such as wood, houses, and vegetation. Heat availability informs of heat wave that ran across Victoria and enough oxygen in the atmosphere to sustain fire. The risks were there but only one trigger or spark may have caused the ignition of the disaster. Impact The incident resulted into both short term and long-term impacts to the state. First, it suffered immediate impact of the fires such as the 173 deaths and about 414 burn injuries. Environmental impacts were experienced, through the fire, millions of animals suffered dead and millions others suffered severe burns. The catchment areas such as dams with their water supplies shifted to other dams. After the fire, ash over affected dams caused these dams to cease operations. Moreover, studies have revealed that smoke from fires is still trapped in some parts of Antarctica. Economically, insurance companies approximated the loss that was caused by fires to be about $1.5 billion. Looting was reported to have spread widely causing even greater losses to victims. Environmentalists are also keen to point out that the fire emitted greenhouse gases, which are now trapped in atmosphere contributing to the global warming phenomenon. Unfortunately, global warming is likely to contribute to more bushfires. Emergency Response to the Disaster 1. Fire response teams Fire response teams and plans had already been put in place earlier. The Delburn fires were already active since January 30 and different people responsibilities to attend the emergency relief centres. Registration exercise with the Red Cross for volunteers were ready in progress. The Victoria Emergency Management Council were coordinating with executives on how the coordination of emergency response and recovery efforts before the fire broke out and the Minister was suppose to be conducted and that emergency response teams were already in place for a possible disaster. The Department of Human Services also assisted in making the extreme weather temperature that was about to hit them. Assessing the response of the Fire Disaster Management Team, it is clear that they were ready. They were in fact anticipating it; they never expect such huge magnitude. Many of the fires started in areas, which were difficult to access. This limited access made it impossible for teams to respond to the fires. As they tried to strategies on how to improve infrastructure, fire was increasing, thus hindering road improvement, which was also supported by favourable atmosphere. The rate at which fire spread was high that the crew in place were defeated to deal with the fire. Strong winds supported the spread fire thus limiting the control. It was suppose to hire a good number of crews to stop fire from causing more damage. Though the few crews were ready to handle the fire, they were few to give good results out of the challenging fire. The disaster might have been handled properly only if infrastructure was accessible enough to allow specialists to reach the scene on time. Moreover, strategic fire breaks could have been established at an early stage before it broke out in order to reduce the risk to wider areas, response should have been made pro-active, not reactive. An outbreak of fire incidences should not be limited to a given region or county but be pro-active whereby all counties contribute towards the fire outbreak control in the affected county. As a fire emergency services commander, land clearance and controlled burning be implemented. Although it may never be supported by environmentalists, it is a remedy which aid prevents damages on land, which are highly vulnerable to fires. Generally, strategies must be formulated to curb the occurrence of fire by installing fire fighters in strategic points (O’Neill, 2009). 2. Pre-hospital emergency care response The State Health Emergency Response Plan was also set in place before February 7, 2009. . Consequently, the Ambulance Emergency Operations Centre plan and deployed its resources and placed other agencies on standby (Cameron, et al, 2009). The Alfred was also mobilized to accept major burn patients. Its medical team was insufficient in meeting the demands of the victims. The pre-hospital care was also insufficient to meet the needs of patients. Although the emergency response teams were ready to deploy, the number and the intensity of the needs of the victims were too overwhelming for the Emergency Response teams to meet. The critical care offered by Alfred and other hospitals were insufficient for the victims. The pre-hospital response teams did have neither good facility nor training skills that would enable them deal with the patients. In this regard, there was a need to improve the skills of paramedics in dealing with severe injuries. They cared much on preventing further injuries, protecting patients from infection, and quickly transfer them a facility, which would offer better services. Such cautions helped ensure injuries were improved by paramedics. Training paramedics and pre-hospital attendants should have been provided to improve survival of the patients. The on-site hospital control team was established near Victorian Hospital Emergency Centre so as to speed up the flow of information and the fast implementation of decisions outside the hospitals (Cameron, et al, 2009). The team also included two plastic surgeons with specialists in burns; burns liaison nurse, and a burns care coordinator. Social workers and public relations staff were also provided to the Centre (Cameron, et al, 2009). It is also important to note that despite the shortcomings in skills and training among the pre-hospital staff, the on-site staff was quick to make adjustments in their response to patient needs (Health Lessons from Black Saturday, 2009). This efficiency could be seen in the fact that not all patients with burns of 20% TBSA who would have normally been admitted to the Alfred were admitted yet. Priority admissions to the Alfred were set aside first for the benefit of those with 30% (or higher) TBSA burns (Cameron, et al, 2009). When resources were limited, the emergency medical teams applied the rules of triage and prioritized those with severe injuries first. In so doing, the medical teams were able to prevent the worsening of injuries among those who were severely injured. Consequently, they were able to reduce the severity of the impact of the fire on the general population. Being an ambulance commander, paramedic would have been ordered to carry out pre-emptive evacuations of people who are in the most danger of being endangered by fires or who may experience difficulties in accessing those affected patients during fire outbreaks (VFBV, 2009). Pre-emptive evacuations help prevent and minimize human casualties and injuries. It also helps reduce damage to property because people can secure their belongings as early as possible while anticipating the dangers of the fires. As an ambulance commander, I would also have ordered the more seriously burnt patients to be brought immediately to the treatment centres and ordered the mildly burned to be transported at a later time. 3. Government response Council relief and recovery centres helped the victims by providing facilities, services for refuge and needs of the people. The government agencies worked closely with one another together with through a well network of coordination with each other so as to ensure that sufficient supplies of basic needs were available to the victims who were in refuge centres. Relief and refuge areas were set-up at different points around affected areas in Victoria. The managed to communicate and coordinate with the responsible agencies like the Red Cross, the United Nations-WHO, and the Human Services Department so as to aid bring in food and medical services for the people in displaced centres. These agencies also assisted the victims in making contact with their close relatives who were within and outside Victoria. The coordination among these agencies was quite dynamic and effective. During the occurrence of the disaster, supplies seemed to be difficult to access. However, as aid workers were able to get through these areas, improved accessibility of those basic needs in order to supply to the victims. The coordination and the provisions for basics could have been improved by providing these areas beforehand with the necessary supplies to shelter and offer refuge to as many people as possible. This would have anticipated the problem of limited supplies even before it happened and ensured that relief efforts at the time of the disaster would be directed to other un-anticipated needs. Aggressive information dissemination should have been put in place by those concerned government authorities warning the people of the possibility of the fires breaking out and for them to make preparations to evacuate as soon as possible. The information dissemination by the authorities should have also covered warnings and reminders for people not to throw cigarette butts or other flammable materials in areas which are dry and which might catch fire. Industries, which work and handle flammable and spark-emitting tools should also be cautioned on the handling of sparks and flammable materials. Conclusion The Black Saturday bushfires resulted to one of the most disastrous events to have ever been recorded in the Australian history. It was brought about by natural conditions, and supported by fabricated actions that all resulted to fire outbreak. The hazards and risks present right before the fires were enough to spark the first light, which started the fires. Although the authorities were anticipating the bushfires, its actual impact on the people and on their resources was not expected (Looters move in to rob the dead at Heathcote Junction, 2009). In the end, the disaster management teams were not well armed with equipment to face the challenging fire that was eating up property. The medical team was in a position to able to face the tragedy more promptly, but towards the end situation worsened as fire was spreading at a very high speed hindering from service delivery. After the fire was stopped, those responsible authorities realized there are high chances of improving them so as to be able to fight such incidences in future only if they are wisely implemented. Bibliography Agriculture, V. D. (2007). The journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria. R. S. Brain, govt Printer , 210. Llc, B. (2010). Bushfires in Victoria: Black Saturday Bushfires, List of Country Fire Authority Brigades, List of 2009 Victorian Bushfire Donations. Victoria: General Books LLC. Peacock, R. D., Kuligowski, E. D., & Averill, J. D. (2011). Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics. Springer. Victoria. Bushfires Royal Commission, B. T. (2010). 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission: final Report. The Commission , 154. About Black Saturday, (2009), Country Fire Authority. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from CFA 2009 Country Fire Authority http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/history/about_black_saturday.htm Bushfire aftermath: smoke trapped over Antarctica. (2009), Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/28/2583676.htm Cameron, P. (2009) Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia. Australian Post Online. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.apo.org.au/research/black-saturday-immediate-impact-february-2009-bushfires-victoria-australia Cameron, P., Mitra, B., Fitzgerald, M., Scheinkestel, C., Stripp, A., & Batey, C. (2009) Black Saturday: the immediate impact of the February 2009 bushfires in Victoria, Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, volume 191(1), pp. 11-16 Emergency and Incident Management (2009). Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/finaldocuments/volume2/PF/VBRC_Vol2_Chapter02_PF.pdf Final Report Summary (2009) Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/finaldocuments/summary/PF/VBRC_Summary_PF.pdf Fireground Response (2009) Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/finaldocuments/volume-2/PF/VBRC_Vol2_Chapter03_PF.pdf Gelineau, K. (2009) Millions of animals dead in Australia fires. Associated Press. Retrieved 27September 2010 from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hn9MswZT1UDQOM4JFexha4JktfeQD969HIS80 Granger, K., Luxton, D., & Berechree, M. (2009) Chapter 11: Bushfire Risks. Geoscience Australia. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.ga.gov.au/image_cache/GA4214.pdf Health Lessons from Black Saturday (2009) Medical News Today. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156465.php Ker, P. (2009) Dash to save Melbourne's drinking water. The Age. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.theage.com.au/national/dash-to-save-melbournes-drinking-water-20090217-89wm.html Looters move in to rob the dead at Heathcote Junction (2009) Herald Sun (News Limited). Retrieved 11 February 2010 from http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25037815-661,00.html Moncrief, M. (2009) Worst day in history: Brumby warns of fire danger. Fairfax Media. Melbourne: The Age. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.theage.com.au/national/worst-day-in-history-brumby-warns-of-fire-danger-20090206-7zf1.html Nichols, Nick (2009) Insurance bills set to rocket. GoldCoast.com. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/02/10/47451_gold-coast-news.html O’Neill, B. (2009) The Victorian Bushfires. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://mises.org/daily/3343 Relief and Recovery (2009) Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/finaldocuments/volume-2/PF/VBRC_Vol2_Chapter08_PF.pdf The exceptional January–February 2009 heatwave in south-eastern Australia. (2009) Bureau of Meteorology. National Climate Centre. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/statements/scs17d.pdf Q&A: Victorian bushfires (2009) CSIRO. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.csiro.au/resources/Victorian-Bushfires-QA.html#1 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009) Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria. Retrieved 27 September 2010 from http://www.vfbv.com.au/royalCommission.php Read More

The dry vegetation due to drought and strong winds resulted to the sudden outbreaks of the fire and strong human activities resulted to the lifting of firebrands. The strong winds in the upper atmosphere carried burning spark downwind over long distances at the end creating more fires and supporting the phenomenon of fire spotting. The firebrands were spread by the strong winds from one area to another (Nichols & Nick2009). The fires in the Victorian area were of different sizes and effect; the worse of these fires however were rapidly spread after ignition (O’Neill, 2009).

These fires also crowned forested areas, which could not be easily accessed by the fire crews (Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, 2009). Powerful convection columns were seen above the fires; significant forward spotting was seen because of the fuel type, weather conditions, and topography; in the afternoon of Saturday, wind direction changed and further spread the fire (Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission, 2009). Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) revealed that high temperature of over 45 degrees, and the air was also extremely dry on that particular day (CSIRO, 2009).

Coupled with the low rainfall in the area, it was rife with tinder-dry fuel, which was so easily ignited and difficult to extinguish. Moreover, a cold front was also making it pass down to the state and churned up strong winds over the region (CSIRO, 2009). (About Black Saturday, 2009) Generally, Black Saturday Bushfires are different major fires occurring across different parts of Victoria. About 78 communities and numerous towns were affected by these fires. There were about 400 inhabitants injured by these fires.

Conditions before the fire were also investigated by authorities and they revealed in their reports that the exceptional heat wave that week leading up to the Victorian fires prompted the authorities to deploy most of their fire fighters into different parts of Victoria; and they were cautioned to stay on the alert for possible fires breaking out (Bureau of Meteorology, 2009). A warning by their Premier even cautioned the state on the possibility of extreme weather conditions with the heat wave and the strong winds which were about to hit them (Moncrief, 2009).

All these preparations however were insufficient to contain the intensity and the wide coverage of these fires thus turning the incident one of the worse disasters in Australian history. Hazard The hazard here can first be detailed as natural because it was greatly contributed by high temperature. The long period of drought also created dry tinder for easy ignition of fire. Dry atmosphere and vegetation causing heat were fabricated at some extent as far as global warming is concerned.

Human activities such as greenhouse emit harmful gas and is trapped inside including heat which otherwise should have been released into the space, leading to air being warm in the atmosphere. Extremely warm temperature results into the extreme weather conditions that was experienced, as well as extended seasons of dry weather in Australia before the fires hit. Lack of rainfall partially attributed to the dissipation of rain clouds and the extended dry season extreme weather conditions experienced in different parts of the world.

Risk The risk refers to objective or subjective probability that an occurrence of bad may happen. Basing on the incident, the risk of fire outbreak that time relied on a number of factors. First was because there was directed to the extreme weather conditions experienced. The probability of somebody igniting a fire was very high. Secondly was the risk of someone not putting out campfire on strong winds hence fire spreading to other places. Thirdly, the risks seen during the fire were highly significant to the occurrence of fire outbreak.

For fire outbreak to occur, at least three factors can sustain it: flammable materials, heat to cause; and oxygen to aid in burning.

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