Command & Control

International effort battles Australian bushfires

By Robin Hicks | 17 February 2009

Firefighters from the United States and Canada have been brought in to help control blazes that continue to rage across Southeastern Australia.

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The North American units have teamed up with force of 30,000 firefighters from New Zealand, New South Wales and Tasmania as well as Victoria, to battle the worst bushfires seen in Australia since the infamous 1983 Ash Wednesday blazes.

A spokesman from Victoria’s Central Fire Authority (CFA) confirmed that six “major” fires are still burning in the state, and more help is needed to control the blazes before the CFA enters “full recovery mode.”

Forty aircraft, including fire spotter planes and air-crane helicopters carrying water guns, have been deployed. FLIR thermal cameras are being used to identify the hottest parts of the fires.

The blazes are expected to continue to burn through to the end of March, when the fire season usually subsides.

A recent report indicated that the fire season in southeast Australia has lengthened because of chronic drought, which is thought to have been the result of climate change.

“We’ve had 12 years of drought. It doesn’t take much to start a hire here,” said the CFA spokesman. So far, 189 people have died as a result of the fires. Some were started by arsonists.

“We accept that it is likely that there will be more casualties before the fires are all brought under control,” the spokesman added.

The CFA has launched a page on its website (www. cfa.vic.gov.au) to provide citizens with updates on fires in their area.