Incident Overview
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY VILSACK AND AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER RUDD HONOR U.S. WILDLAND FIREFIGHTERS
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/ s.7 0 A/7 0 1OB contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/03/0072.xml
WASHINGTON, March 26, 2009-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today welcomed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) at an event in honor of the wildfire firefighters who were deployed last month to aid Australia during difficult wildfire season.
"We are thankful to have such a partnership with Australia and very proud that American firefighters were asked to assist across the globe in a time of need," said Vilsack.
Prime Minister Rudd thanked the US Government for its support in fighting the "Black Saturday" bush fires of February 2009 which destroyed 2029 homes and killed 210 people in the state of Victoria, Australia. At that time, President Obama and the Prime Minister Rudd discussed the status of the fires across Victoria, Australia and on February 9, 2009 finalized a request for U.S. assistance.
Seventy-three people provided assistance to Victoria, 38 from USDA Forest Service and 35 from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Department of Defense also provided aerial transport from Travis Air Force Base to Victoria for approximately 50 tons of fire retardant. The deployed U.S. personnel included: three Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Teams, 11 Incident Management Team members, a 20-person Interagency Suppression Crew and three liaisons. Sixty personnel returned to the United States on March 15 and one 13 member BAER team will return on April 7.
The American and Australian firefighters have supported each other for almost 10 years. Since signing a 2001 agreement, Australia has provided wildfire assistance to the U.S. in 2002, 2003 and 2006 while the U.S. has provided assistance in 2003, 2007 and 2009. The USDA Forest Service also provides firefighting assistance and training to numerous other nations including Greece, Mexico and Indonesia.
U.S. government deployments are coordinated through the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). NIFC, located in Boise, Idaho, is the nation's support center for wildland firefighting. Eight different agencies and organizations are part of NIFC. Decisions are made using the interagency cooperation concept because NIFC has no single director or manager. More information about USDA is available at http://www.usda.gov/ and NIFC at http://www.nifc.gov/ .
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National Interagency Fire Center Coordinates Firefighting Assistance Request from AustraliaOn February 11, 2009, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, received a request for assistance from Australia, in the wake of unprecedented fire activity in the southeastern part of Australia. Wildfires in Australia have claimed at least 200 lives since February 7.
On February 13, the United States sent 60 wildfire specialists to Australia to meet this request.
The American specialists that were deployed include wildland fire personnel with expertise operations, planning and logistics, two thirteen-person interagency Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams specializing in stabilizing and rehabilitating burned areas, and one 20-person suppression firefighting crew.
The specialists, all from federal agencies, came from throughout the United States. Their length of deployment will be up to 35 days.
"We're grateful for the opportunity to assist Australia during a difficult wildfire situation," said Lyle Carlile, the fire director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at NIFC. Carlile chairs an interagency group at NIFC with the responsibility of coordinating national wildfire response.
"Since 2000, Australia has sent wildfire specialists several times to help the U.S. in some of our worst fire seasons. We are pleased that we can reciprocate," he added.
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Interagency BAER-Emergency Stabilization & Rehabilitation Teams
Burned ∙ Area ∙ Emergency ∙ Response ∙ (BAER)
Australia Support 2009
MISSION
The two BAER-Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation teams are comprised of the following federal US Department of Interior agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (F&WS), National Park Service (NPS); and the US Department of Agriculture agency: Forest Service (USFS). Each team is made up of a variety of specialists such as soil scientists, hydrologists, geologists, biologists, geographic information system specialists, archeologist, botanist, silviculturist, research engineer, and civil engineer. The two BAER teams are very experienced specialists that are highly effective in conducting rapid assessments and analyses.
The emergency stabilization-rehabilitation teams are working with the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Country Fire Authority (CFA), and Parks Victoria (PV) to supplement their agency field officers in accessing the burned area assessments on public and private lands.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The objective for the United States (US) Interagency BAER-Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation teams is to support and supplement Victoria State agencies in their analysis of the post-fire effects from as many fire areas as our deployment timeframe permits.
Our specific objectives are to:
· Share a methodology and process for assessing post-fire impacts and identifying treatment objectives by sharing tools such as satellite imagery, erosion models, and monitoring methodologies
· Identify site specific treatment objectives and potential treatments for public and private lands
· Learn from our Australian counterparts about the tools and resources they use to respond to post-fire emergencies
· Incorporate our Australian counterparts and team members from the States of Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory
PROCESS
- Review several Public Land Rehabilitation Plans and the Code of Practice to understand the framework for post fire rehabilitation efforts in Australia
- Work with the IMT, DSE, CFA, State Government, Parks Victoria, and local landowners to conduct field assessments
- Identify impacts to assets (roads, bridges, homes), watershed and biodiversity conditions, erosion potential, weed invasion, archaeological, historical, indigenous, cultural sites and values, and rare or threatened species or communities
- Determine potential threats to life and property, and identify treatment objectives and potential treatments to mitigate or reduce the risk
- Prepare a report of our findings characterizing the threatening processes - severity, likelihood, immediacy
Some of the tools we use to prioritize our field review include obtaining satellite landsat imagery that compares pre-fire to post-fire vegetative conditions resulting in soil burn severity maps that locate areas of potential impacts.
Basic Information
| Incident Type | Wildfire |
|---|---|
| Cause | Lightning/under Investigation |
| Date of Origin | Saturday February 07th, 2009 approx. 12:00 AM |
| Location | Victoria State - Australia |
| Incident Commander | Victoria State Dse |
Current Situation
| Size | 748,417 acres |
|---|---|
| Significant Events | Two of the three US BAER teams, 13 Incident Management team members, and the 20-person suppression firefighting crew have completed their 30-day Australian assignment and returned to the US on Sunday, March 15. The remaining US BAER team, led by USDA Forest Service employee Terry Hardy, will remain in Australia until approximately April 7. The Hardy US BAER team is assessing the southern portions of the Kilmore East-Murrindindi Complex fire. Hardy's team is working with the staff from the State of Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). Also imbedded into the team are specialists from Melbourne Water, Country Fire Authority (CFA), and Parks Victoria (PV). |
Outlook
| Planned Actions | Keep up-to-date with Victoria State - Australia bushfires on public land at www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires. |
|---|---|
| Remarks | The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) manages fire on Victoria's 7.6 million hectares of public land, or roughly one third of the State. This includes reducing the risk of fire, containing outbreaks and managing environmental effects. Fire Suppression: Victoria's experience with wildfire over the last 150 years has seen the development of firefighting methods in its State's parks and forests that are considered to be some of the most advanced and effective of their kind in the world. Following its detection, wildfire suppression on public land includes all activities that are connected with extinguishing a wildfire and making it safe. The Department of Sustainability and Environment's (DSE) Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land Revision No 1 (2006), states that the response to all wildfires on or threatening public land must be planned and conducted according to the following principles: * wildfires to be brought under control; * control of wildfires to be given priority over all other Departmental activities; * upon detection of a wildfire, control action to be safe, fast, determined and thorough, with the primary objective of controlling the fire in the shortest possible time with due regard given to management cost objectives, environmental values and effectiveness; * fire suppression will include the provision of accurate and timely information to local communities; * where appropriate, local knowledge will be actively sought to inform incident control decisions. Fire suppression must be carried out in accordance with an Incident Action Plan, prepared following consideration of: * firefighter safety; * current and predicted fire behaviour; * assets and values at risk from the wildfire or suppression activities; * management objectives for the area; * resources available locally and through broader emergency arrangements; * suppression methods most appropriate to the area; * known local community concerns and interests; * cost effectiveness; and * likelihood of success of alternative. Suppression Methods: Highly trained planners and firefighters, the use of the latest technology and continuous updating of equipment, techniques and methods maintain this effectiveness. |
