Black Saturday Fires - Responses

CASE STUDY FRAMEWORK

COURTNEY CARTER: 220083388        

WORD COUNT 1,361

Rural Resilience – Can Isolated, Bushfire Prone Communities Become More Resilient to Future Events?

BACKGROUND: BLACK SATURDAY FIRES

The Black Saturday fires of 2009 were one of the worst bushfire disasters in Victoria, and Australia’s history, claiming many lives and destroying billions of dollars worth of property. The aftermath of this terrible incident poses many questions; and pertinent to this paper, the question of whether the affected region and its people can become more resilient to future bushfires.

Introduction/Description of Event (what/where/magnitude etc.)

Setting the scene – introducing the facts about the size and scope of the disaster in terms of duration and cost (both monetary and human)

• Began on Feb 7, 2009, burnt for over a month
• Over 400,000ha of bushland burnt
• 78 communities affected
• Involved 19,000 CFA members
• Death Toll 173, Injuries 414, Animals 1 million+
• Economic Impact: $4.4b

Risk factors

Introduce the risk factors associated with and relating to the event, from climatic conditions of the area, weather pre and during the event, and the topography and landform features of the affected area. (Include images of weather patterns within the finished report to highlight weather patterns, maybe Doppler graph showing smoke density of the fire)

• Weather        (BOM)

• Leading to the day of fires

• Heatwave (3 + days of 43ºC)
• Lowest rainfall on record

• Dry conditions good for firestorm

• Day of fires

• BOM report on weather for incident
• High winds (115km/h)

• Winds carry embers, fan fire, add oxygen to fire which increases intensity
• Cool change altering direction of fire front

• Lead to huge increase in size of front

• High-pressure system + monsoon trough – hot dry heat. Maximum temperatures up to 20ºC above average

• Topography

• Hilly, mountainous country

• Makes spreading of fire up gradients easy (10 degree double rule)

• Hard for firefighters to access areas?
• High fuel loads contributing to easy burning conditions

• Was there precedence for weather events?

• Quotations from Bushfires Royal Commission regarding empirical observations from those involved

Disaster Resilience

Define resilience, its underlying concepts, and how (the) resilience (of communities) relates to the aftermath of a natural disaster.

• Definition

•  Ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from or more successfully adapt to actual or potential adverse events (Cutter, 2011).

• Fundamental questions – resilience of WHAT/WHOM to WHAT?

• Three foci to resilience (define these)

• Individual
• Group
• Spatial

• Components of Resilience

• Social
• Economic
• Institutional
• Infrastructure
• Community
• Environmental

THE BLACK SATURDAY FIRES: ISSUES OF RESILIENCE

Present an overview of how the resilience shown my all stakeholders in the Black Saturday Fires has helped or hindered the communities to recover. Evaluate the aspects of the disaster recovery process, both positive and negative, to build a case as to how the communities can become more resilient to future events – whilst taking the following dilemma into consideration.

Dilemma – To quickly rebuild communities to get people back in houses/appease the media’s need for a story, or engage in long consultation to ensure best outcomes for residents.  

Evaluation of reactions to Black Saturday Fires

POSITIVE

• Establishment of Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (10th Feb)
• Flowerdale + CSIRO’s Sustainable Ecosystems (Bun)

• Working together to create a new, sustainable and green future for Flowerdale

• Green Cross/Alternative Technology Assoc. setting up www.builditbackgreen.org - firesafe building options

• Community discussions surrounding rebuilding (Marysville/Strathhaven) (Bun – Griffith Review)

• Time taken to assess, residents reported that new facilities much more sustainable/multi purpose than original

• Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA)

• Funds made immediately available for LGA’s affected by fire, to a max of $25k per household

• Response of Victorian State Trauma System (Cameron et.al, 2009)

• Detail steps taken to ensure facilities were ready to cope with expected inundation of patients

• Uprising of social media use during Black Saturday Fires event (Sinnappan, 2012)

• January 2009, Twitter jumps 19 spots to become third most used social media outlet (compete.com), growing by 1400% per year, 35million tweets world wide per day
• During Black Saturday Fires, real-time tweets sent by

• ABC774 Melbourne (53 tweets)

• More reports than state based authorities

• 1684 tweets containing the keyword #fire spanning from Victoria in week of bushfires
• Majority of tweets leading to factual information, seeking help/information, geographical data or links to maps/other resources

• Can twitter be used as an effective tool for communication during natural disasters/events? Examine in conclusions, area to increase resilience

NEURTRAL

• SMS warnings sent to over 3 million Victorians on March 3 warning of extreme fire danger

• Coordinated effort from phone telco’s with Australia
• ‘Not suitable for immediate threat due to bandwidth of phone service’ – Victorian Premier John Brumby
• Trialed in South Australia, but recipients receiving messages days after threat passed, or during middle of the night

NEGATIVE

• Perceived slow process of issuing planning permits

• Less than 40% of houses destroyed awarded new planning permits in first 24 months

• Saw John Brumby ousted as Premier

• Lack of community involvement in many cases in regards to integrated recovery planning

• Centralised recovery funding red tape ridden grant programs (Bun), lack of shared dialogue in many cases, disempowerment of locals in consultation phase.

• Community Preparedness

• Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission findings
• In a complex event like the Black Saturday Fires, “householder actions, agency decision-making and longer-term management issues all fell short of what was required”

• Fire plans of variable quality

• Survey showing 60% of people indicated they would leave early on a Code Red fire danger day, in the case of BSF, less than 2% left their house
• NEED TO ENCOURAGE BETTER PLANNING? – discuss further in conclusions

• Disproportionate age of fatalities from elderly/immobile

• 44% of deaths 12> // >70 years of age or disabled
• 25% of fatalities unaware of fire risk in the area
• 39% of residents had no knowledge of how to mitigate fire risk
• ONLY 9% OF RESIDENTS RECEIVED WARNINGS – social media as a tool to increase knowledge?

Lessons Learnt

• O’Neill & Handmer (2012). Responding to bushfire risk: the need for transformative adaptation.

• Framework for improving community resilience

• DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY

• Can we find ways to communicate with residents quickly and effectively when faced with large uncertainties?

• Recovery – Low Cost/Value for Money recovery?

• Speed of recovery often driven by the media
• Comparisons of rebuilding efforts between Marysville/Strathhaven (Black Saturday Fires) and Milton State School (Queensland Floods)

• Which was more effective (short term/long term focus?)

• Making resilience and sustainability a central priority (Bun)

• Post disaster community deliberation
• Timescales to suit each recovery
• Mixing local consultation with effective processes – minimizing red tape
• Not bowing to needs of immediacy

CONCLUSIONS: WHAT IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE MADE

Were the communities affected by the Black Saturday Fires well prepared for the events that unfolded?

• In one word – No

• Analysis of above information shows gaps in residents knowledge/ability to protect their property, limiting legislation concerning rebuilding processes and inefficiencies in delivering information to residents in affected areas during event

How can the communities be more resilient/better prepared for future events?

• Embrace modern technology (e.g. social media systems) to receive up to date information/warning data from agencies

• Build a case for social media by comparison of information available to affected residents through social media (twitter) and government agencies

• Proper planning for residents’ bushfire preparedness

• Legislation to ensure every household in potential danger zone has written stay or go plan

• Education for residents on how to fight fires/defend house
• Psychological help to ensure residents are mentally strong enough to stick to “stay or go” plan they have devised

• Increase community competence

• Public meetings to address and plan strategies for future events

• More awareness, more cautions, more pro-active stance from the community
• “Empowered communities are capable of self-organising to influence appropriate government responses to their concerns”

• Greater funding and adoption of services such as builditbackgreen.org to facilitate re-building of properties in a green and fire resilient manner

RESOURCES

Abc.net.au, (2009). Black Saturday | Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [Online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/blacksaturday/#/stories/mosaic

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