Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) and Country Fire Authority (CFA) use this time of year to come together to join forces and help protect Victorian communities from bushfires.
As part of the protection, both agencies conduct planned burning – FFMVic on public lands and CFA on behalf of private landowners or managers of other reserves such as roads and rail corridors, council reserves and water authority land.
This season, CFA has been able to assist FFMVic with at least eight planned burns across the State.
According to the Regional Fuel Management Coordinator in the Port Phillip Region of the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), Jillian Gallucci, sometimes the two agencies work together to deliver planned burns or run joint training courses like the Planned Burns Operations Officer course.
“We might need extra tanker capacity at the burn, or their skills, expertise, or specialised resources,” Ms Gallucci said of the partnership with CFA.
“The sharing of resources at planned burns is also about building relationships, capacity building and exposure to planned burning for CFA crews and inviting them along to be involved in fire management activities within their brigade area,” she said.
“CFA has been involved in a couple of planned burns in the Port Phillip region this autumn.”
Ms Gallucci said CFA was known in the community and was always a great help when burning close to private properties.
“It gives that added reassurance and confidence to the community,” she said.
“‘We delivered a particularly difficult and complex planned burn on Mount Dandenong a few years ago where we assigned CFA an Asset Protection Sector.
“They were able to gain access to each of the private properties that bordered the area we were burning so that they could patrol and make sure no embers landed and took hold”.
She said the CFA fuel management program was often driven by local communities which had positive flow-on effects for communities in understanding their own bushfire risk and the role fire could play in reducing risks and maintaining ecosystems.
Ms Gallucci said the gathering was not all one-sided.
“The CFA sometimes requests FFMVic crews to attend their planned burns,” she said. “This is often for particular skills sets such as the use of FFMVic’s Tree Hazard Assessors.”
She said the CFA crews were volunteers so they really appreciated the helping out with their burns.
