Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC)

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The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission was established on 16 February to investigate the causes and responses to the bushfires which swept through parts of Victoria in late January and February 2009.

The Commission heard the first block of evidence and delivered its interim report on 17 August 2009. A final report is due by 31 July 2010.

The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission website has details on the Commission and houses submissions and transcripts from the public hearings.

You can watch the Royal Commission live via the web.

Interim Report 1 Recommendations

On August 17 the Royal Commission into Bushfires handed down its interim report to the Victorian Government. While there were a range of recommendations made concerning the operation of Victorian Agencies there were some key recommendations made that will have implications for all fire and emergency agencies around Australia.

Advice to the Community
Significant changes were recommended to the delivery and wording of advice and warnings given to the community. This included community education material that highlighted:

Leaving as the safest option
Not all homes are defendable
If a home can not be defended you should leave
The risk of defending includes death
There could be psychological impacts of staying to defend a property

The Commission has also recommended a range of measures the CFA should take to be able to provide assessments of the defendability of individual houses to their owners.

Fire Danger Ratings
Changes to the fire danger rating system has also been recommended to include ratings beyond the current upper limit of extreme and to develop a severity scale for use in bushfire warnings. It is recommended fire danger indices should be published by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Warnings
During fires the Commission has recommended warnings are founded on the principle of maximising the potential to save human lives. This includes improved information on:

the severity
location
predicted direction
likely time of impactof bushfires on specific communities and locations.

The warnings should use the principles set out in Commonwealth policy paper ‘Emergency warnings – Choosing your words’ (2008). A two tier system of Bushfire Information and Bushfire Warnings is recommended with SEWS used before all community warnings.

The Commission has also indicated that Incident Controllers should be able to give advice for people to relocate as part of official warnings.

Much of this work was completed by Australian fire agencies in October. The new arrangements are contained in the document Australia's Revised Arrangements for Bushfire Alerts and Warnings - 2009/2010 Fire Season

Community Refuges
The use of community refuges has also been recommended as has Victorian agencies prioritising where possible resources to assist in the defence of designated community fire refuges and neighbourhood safer places at times when they are likely to be in use.

Many of the recommendations have matched the projects announced in July by the Victorian Premier John Brumby and work is already underway to implement a number of these recommendations. The Victorian Government will have provided a formal response to the Commission by the end of August and is expected to make major announcements on changes to fire safety strategies in Victoria on October 1 2009, the start of the fire season.

Interim Report 2 Recomendations

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission released its second Interim Report, “Interim Report 2 – Priorities for Building in Bushfire Prone Areas”, on 24 November 2009. The report made seven recommendations which deal with the need for a national standard for bushfire bunkers and urgent changes to building standards for building in bushfire areas. The report can be downloaded from the Royal Commission website.

On the issues of bunkers, the Interim Report supports AFAC’s statements on the complexity of bunkers laid out in the discussion paper Bushfire Bunkers for Residential Homes.

“The positions of AFAC and the State are consistent with the evidence of a number of witnesses who gave evidence before the Commission. The Commission accepts and adopts this as a sound approach.”

The Commission supports the development of a national standard and the interim recommendations include:
•    The Australian Building Codes Board to develop a standard for bushfire bunkers
•    The Building Code of Australia to be amended to include bunkers in classes of buildings.
•    The Commonwealth to encourage jurisdictions to adopt the standard

AFAC’s concerns regarding the exclusion of grassland fuels from AS3959 2009 has been addressed with a recommendation for amendments (completed before March 31 2010) to AS3959 to include grassland fuels. The use of sarking as an ember protection measure, and its required fire resistance will also be addressed by an amendment to AS3959 before March 31 2010.

The Commission also recommended improvements to ember protection at lower BAL levels (BAL 12.5 BAL 19), in particular the sub-floor requirements and materials prescribed for doors, windows and wall barriers.

The Royal Commission continues.
The full report can be viewed on the Royal Commission website

AFAC's involvement in the Royal Commission

As previously advised, AFAC sought leave to appear at the Commission and subsequently received a summons for documents relating to the development of the Prepare, stay and defend or leave early position, warnings, education and work associated with Australian Standard 3959 Building in Bushfire Prone Areas.

Statements were prepared for five AFAC witnesses. Naomi Brown on AFAC, its purpose and role and community education, John Gledhill (TFS) on the Prepare, stay and defend or leave early position, Jill Edwards (AFAC) on a National Warning System, Andrew Lawson (SA CFS) on the implementation of the SA Warning system and Mark Chladil (TFS) on building issues.

All of the AFAC witnesses, except Mark Chladil, gave evidence during June. It is expected that Mark will be called in the second block of hearings commencing in mid August. The transcripts from the hearings are on the website of the Royal Commission and updates on the days proceedings are below.