The Fire and Life Safety Blog

I came across this 2004 document produced following some research by the Council of Australian Governments. Appendix C lists all the major recommendations of the enquiries that informed the research. Of particular note is the section on “Consistent Themes” in the recommendations. It is troubling that many of the key recommendations of this report were not acted on in the last 5 years (, nor others of other reports in the last 70 years!)

An example of this is the Bushfire Housing Code – AS3959 Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas. It is 10 years since it has been revised which is the sunsetting period for an Australian Standard. Admittedly, it has been through an unparalled period of ongoing bushfire research and investigation. Perhaps it was wise to wait for findings and recommendations?! (more…)

With the release of the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into the 2009 Victorian Bushfires we have been scouring the Internet for background information on bush fire research. We are amazed at just how much research there has been. Whilst it is important that the Terms of Reference for the Royal Commission into the 2009 Victorian Bushfires are suitably wide there is a risk that much of this has been looked at before. There is a considerable body of recent and historical research that underlies and underpins much of what is practice today amongst the various emergency service and land management agencies.

Appendix C of the Council of Australian Government 2004 report National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management lists a number of key reports and investigations used for this report. Of even more interest is the analysis in the Appendix of  “Consistent themes”. (more…)