News

Advice for people trapped in their cars during a bushfire has been updated with a groundbreaking study into what happens to a vehicle caught in the middle of a firestorm. The research initiated by NSW Rural Fire Service and conducted by Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre with CSIRO scientists, sought to determine the maximum heat load that a vehicle could face while remaining a safe haven for its occupants, both in terms of the air temperature and the air quality inside the vehicle.

Australia and New Zealand’s leading fire and land managers, research bodies and industry partners are meeting in Melbourne today to determine the future needs of fire research in Australia and New Zealand. The Bushfire CRC and the peak industry body, the Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC), have begun to focus on the next Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) after the current seven-year term expires in 2010. The two organisations will lead a consortium bidding for new CRC funding to support the fire industry into the next decade.

The findings of Australia’s most extensive study to date of the behaviour of high-intensity bushfires in eucalypt forests – Project Vesta – provides valuable new tools and information for fire managers across Australia.

Emergency service volunteers and their partners or spouses are being asked to comment on how their volunteer community role fits in with their family life. “We know that volunteering as a firefighter or emergency worker puts a unique blend of pressures on volunteers and their families,” said Sean Cowlishaw, a Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre PhD student at La Trobe University in Melbourne.