7 March 2008
The mallee and
heath landscape of Ngarkat Conservation Park in south-eastern South
Australia has been deliberately set alight in one of the largest
and most comprehensive fire research exercises undertaken in
Australia.
The major part of the exercise was Project FuSE, a research
collaboration between the South Australian Department for
Environment and Heritage (DEH) and CSIRO Forest Biosciences through
the national Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. The project is
aiming to describe fuel dynamics and fire behaviour in two major
fuel types – mallee and heath.
This week’s burns at Ngarkat build upon the data already
gained from test burns in the area in recent years. The final
output of this study will be a prescribed burning guide for areas
of similar vegetation type around Australia.
More than 100 bushfire researchers and fire agency personnel
from around Australia converged on the park this week for a series
of controlled burns under several separate research projects
designed to improve fire management in South Australia and
nationally.
A total of 18 experimental fires were completed. These ranged
from one to 80 hectares in size and were burnt under very high fire
danger weather conditions. According to lead researcher Jim Gould,
from the Bushfire CRC and CSIRO Forest Biosciences, the fires
provided high quality data on fire behaviour, fire weather, aerial
fire bombing, the effects of smoke on fire fighters and the fitness
and health of the fire fighters.
"This week has been a unique opportunity for us to look closely
at fire under dry and extreme conditions in this sort of landscape.
The data we have gathered in the field and from the air will help
us all to better understand and better manage mallee and heath bush
that spreads from South Australia, across Victoria and into much of
western New South Wales, and also in Western Australia,” he
said.
In addition to Project FuSE, Bushfire CRC researchers in Ngarkat
studied:
Fire
behaviour
This team was lead by Bushfire CRC
Program Leader Jim Gould with his researchers Miguel Cruz, Stuart
Matthews and Andrew Sullivan of CSIRO Forest Biosciences, plus
researchers from Spain, New Zealand and Denmark.
The objectives of the 2008 burning
program were to:
- Characterise
changes in the fuel complex since the last fire
- Model the
seasonal and diurnal fuel moisture dynamics of live and dead fuel
components
- Determine the
vertical wind profile in these fuel types
- Model the fire
environment conditions that will sustain fire spread (propagation
thresholds)
- Model the rate
of fire spread and flame characteristics.
By conducting these studies under
different weather conditions over the three years, a fire behaviour
model can be constructed. This model will assist fire and land
management agencies across Australia during suppression operations.
It will also assist agencies to plan and safely conduct hazard
reduction and ecological management burns. More than 40
experimental burns will have been conducted by the completion of
the project.
Aerial
suppression
Two fixed wing
aircraft dropped a range of chemical suppressants (retardant, foam
and gel) and the results will be compared. A third aircraft
coordinated the suppression drops while a helicopter took video and
infrared observations.
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Matt Plucinski, aerial suppression
researcher.
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Lead researcher, Dr Matt Plucinski, Bushfire CRC researcher from
CSIRO Biosciences who lead the research with Jim Gould, said the
Ngarkat study provided a unique opportunity to test suppressants
under controlled conditions. “Up to now we have only been
able to do this sort of work in small experiments or in real
bushfire situations, which limits the amount of data we can gather.
At Ngarkat we could monitor the aerial drops from both the ground
and from the air and compare the performance of different
suppressants in several high intensity fires.”
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service was represented at
Ngarkat by Inspector Sam Crothers, Aviation Operations Support
Officer. Inspector Crothers was a forward ground observer for
the aerial suppression trials with the task of communicating
information such as drop heights, patterns and coverage levels back
to the air attack supervisor.
“This
research gave me valuable experience to witness the different
characteristics of suppressants under extreme fire conditions. It
also gave me the freedom to experiment with different drop heights,
air speed and coverage levels,” he said.
Air toxics exposure
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Fabienne Reisen monitored air exposures on the
fireground.
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Researchers analysed the composition of bushfire smoke by
placing monitors on individual fire fighters as well on the back of
fire trucks to better understand what fire fighters were exposed to
on the fire ground.
Researchers
Fabienne Reisen of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research and Dane
Hansen Phd student at RMIT University will use the results to
complement the data they have previously gathered from prescribed
burns and wildfires in other parts of Australia.
The aim is to
develop a strategy to manage the risks posed by bushfire smoke for
fire fighters.
Fire fighter health and safety
Crews working
on the fires were monitored for the amount of physical effort they
expended to see how this affected factors such as heart rate, body
temperature, and energy and hydration levels.
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Jenni Raines tested the levels of the
firefighters at the start, during and at the end of the shift.
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Project Leader David Nichols from the Country Fire Authority and
PhD student Jenni Raines of Deakin University measured Department
of Environment and Heritage (SA) firefighters before, during and
after a day shift on the fireground.
They were equipped with instruments that tracked their movements,
physical activity, and body-core and skin temperatures. In a
makeshift testing area at the incident control centre, they
conducted blood tests, and took weight and heart rate readings.
Later in the
evening, and after a rest period, the fire fighters were asked to
provide urine, saliva and blood samples prior to taking short
cognitive and physical function tests. The tests will provide
excellent baseline data for developing fatigue, hydration and
fitness guidelines.
Researchers on the ground were supported by staff and volunteers
from the Department for Environment and Heritage and the SA Country
Fire Service. Other agencies involved include the Country Fire
Authority of Victoria, the Department of Sustainability and
Environment, Victoria, the Department of Environment and
Conservation Western Australia, the New South Wales Rural Fire
Service. Research organisations include CSIRO, Deakin University,
the University of Melbourne and the Bureau of Meteorology.
