To the:

Senate Environment and Communications References Committee

UNITED FIREFIGHTERS UNION OF BRANCH SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY INTO: THE RESPONSE TO, AND LESSONS LEARNT FROM, RECENT BUSHFIRES IN REMOTE TASMANIAN WILDERNESS

1 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

INDEX

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Page 3

RECOMMENDATIONS Page 4

1.0 INTRODUCTION Page 5

2.0 THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING ON FIRE FREQUENCY AND Page 6 MAGNITUDE

3.0 PEAK FIRE ACTIVITY SITUATION OVERVIEW – JANUARY 2016 Page 12 FIRES

4.0 ABOUT THE TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE Page 15

5.0 FIREFIGHTING RESOURCES Page 22

6.0 CONCLUSION Page 28

LIST OF APPENDICES Page 29

2 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. This submission by the UFUA Tasmania Branch addresses the following matters subject to this enquiry:

The response to, and lessons learnt from, recent fires in remote Tasmanian wilderness affecting the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with particular reference to:

(a) the impact of global warming on fire frequency and magnitude;

(b) the availability and provisions of financial, human and mechanical resources;

(f) any related matter.

2. We do not provide any detailed assessment with regard to the following matters as the time frames for response prevented the development of research papers of any substance worthy of substantial contribution to this submission.

(c) The adequacy of fire assessment and modelling capacity;

(d) Australia’s obligations as State Party to the World Heritage Convention;

(e) world best practice in remote area fire management; and

3. The UFU acknowledges the significance of the fires that beset Tasmania in January 2016. The magnitude of these fires was an enormous drain on the TFS and supporting resources from interstate and New Zealand.

4. The fires were approximately eighty in number and had at one stage a 100km fire edge. A land mass of approximately 128,000 hectares was burnt including 1.2% of World Heritage area being affected.

5. The UFU submits in this summary the Tasmania Fire Service should receive additional funding for the development and establishment of three new brigades comprising an Officer and three firefighters in each brigade for conducting;

Fuel reduction burns

Providing further assistance to volunteer brigades

Facilitate training for professional firefighters employed in the TFS

Provide an additional urgent response capacity in the event of a bushfire or emergency campaign

6. The UFU’s submission is an outline of the key points it wishes to submit. Should the Committee require any further information or clarification the UFU would be happy to assist. The UFU would welcome an opportunity to appear before the Committee.

3 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. That the Tasmanian Government act on the 2013 Senate Recommendation to specifically address issues of compatibility and capacity to facilitate the most effective interoperability of emergency service organizations and their key personnel, especially for fire services.

2. That the Tasmanian Government commit to the development of strategies that address the consequences of climate change in the Tasmanian emergency fire management context and commit to ongoing funds for those strategies.

3. That the Tasmanian government endorse the principle of increased capacity to address the consequences of climate change including an increased number of career firefighters.

4. The Tasmania Fire Service should receive additional funding for the development and establishment of three new brigades comprising an Officer and three firefighters in each brigade for conducting;  Fuel reduction burns  Providing further assistance to volunteer brigades  Facilitate training for professional firefighters employed in the TFS  Provide an additional urgent response capacity in the event of a bushfire or emergency campaign

4 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 On the 17TH March 2016 the following terms of reference were referred to the Environment and Communications Reference Committee for inquiry and report by 30 May 2016:

The response to, and lessons learnt from, recent fires in remote Tasmanian wilderness affecting the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, with particular reference to:

(a) the impact of global warming on fire frequency and magnitude; (b) the availability and provisions of financial, human and mechanical resources; (c) the adequacy of fire assessment and modelling capacity; (d) Australia’s obligations as State Party to the World Heritage Convention; (e) world best practice in remote area fire management; and (f) any related matter.

1.2 This is the submission of the United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch (UFU).

1.3 The United Firefighters Union of Australia (UFUA) is the registered federal union for professional firefighters in Australia.

1.4 The UFUA has eight branches in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, ACT, New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and an Aviation sector branch. Each branch has very high level of union membership with the majority of branches averaging around 95 to 100 percent membership of the relevant workforce. The UFUA represents professional firefighters employed on a permanent full time basis and permanent part time basis.

1.5 The Tasmania Branch represents 356 members in Tasmania.

5 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

2.0 THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL WARMING ON FIRE FREQUENCY AND MAGNITUDE

2.1 Firefighters do not profess to be climate change experts or scientists, but firefighters’ experiences are that the fire seasons are longer, with days of extreme temperatures resulting in more protracted and intense bushfires. In some states there are more extreme weather events including floods and storms.

2.2 Tasmanians are sadly only too aware of the dangers and risks of extreme fire seasons.

“Tasmania is the wettest of states, yet it still does experience long periods of below average rainfall.

6 APRIL 2016: United Firefighters Union of Australia Tasmania Branch Submission

White et al. (2010) point out that much of the early part of the 21st century saw precipitation deficiencies in parts of the state. Further, the Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and Environment (DPIPWE, 2010) were keen to point out the increased prevalence of extreme fire weather days. The level of risk of fire on any given day is given by the Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI), derived from weather variables air temperature, wind speed and relative humidity together with a measure of fuel availability (or dryness) called the “drought factor” (Dowdy et al., 2009). A fire weather warning is issued when the FFDI exceeds a value of 50. However the threshold was lowered in Tasmania to 24 because significant fire activity was happening at that level.”1

2.3 The 2013 Tasmanian bushfires were a series of bushfires in south-eastern Tasmania starting in November/December 2012 with major fires in early January 2013, right through until late April 2013.

2.4 It was predicted early on that the 2012-13 had the potential to be worse than usual. High fuel loads, coupled with a dry, warm and windy, providing potentially dangerous conditions. A heat wave in January 2013 became known as ‘the ” with Tasmania scorching under its highest temperatures since 1882 reaching 41.8°C in