News

Fire safety was the main point of discussion at the 12th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit held in Sydney at the end of October. Sponsored by the Bushfire CRC, the summit attracted more than 100 delegates from around Australia, New Zealand, North America and Europe.

Fire Note 99 documents the first stage of the Firebrand potential and spot fire initiation project. The results of this project will enable fire managers to better understand the process of spotting, assist in identifying when spotting will be a hazard and provide a basis for predicting its occurrence and maximum distance.

The Spring 2012 edition of Fire Australia is out, featuring stories on the Bushfire CRC seasonal bushfire outlook, a look at the extreme fire behaviour research project and an extract by Jerry Williams from the annual Bushfire CRC and AFAC conference on the growing threat of fire.

Large bushfires can be destructive, but how do they progress to this state? A team of Bushfire CRC researchers is investigating how bushfires develop.

Context is everything in today’s wildland fire debate. This paper focuses much attention on the dry forest types in the Western United States—which means Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and associated species. These forests are where many of our worst wildfires occur. I want to use these short-interval fire-adapted ecosystems to make some points about the relationship between their dynamics, our management of them, and the wildfire outcomes that we should expect.

Determining the expected bushfire potential across the country is a scientific process. The Bushfire CRC recently brought together fire and weather experts from around Australia to discuss the upcoming bushfire season.