Month: July 2003

The January fires burnt out 10,500 hectares of ACT Forests’ commercial pine plantations. All 24 staff of ACT Forests – all trained in fire-fighting – helped fight the fires. Now they are working on the recovery.

ACT Forests estimates the loss of about seven million trees will cost $50 million. Damage to buildings was $10 million.

ACT Forests has been faced with the task of clearing and restoring the forests and trying to regain some of the recreation uses of its forests.

Only 5500 hectares of ACT Forests plantations were untouched – the plantations at Kowen, Fairbairn, Majura and Tuggeranong

The director of ACT Forests, Tony Bartlett, said that since the fires ACT Forests had managed to salvage 68,000 tonnes from the burnt plantations and produced 15,000 tonnes of chips produced for biofuel for sale to companies like Visy at Tumut. Revenue from the salvage has so far been $4 million.

ACT Forests has also cleared a buffer of at least 100 metres wide between the Stromlo plantation and the urban area in Duffy and Holder. This will help alleviate fears of residents in the lead up to the next fire season.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_forest recovery”

The January 18 fires cost insurance companies $350.7 million, according to the Insurance Disaster Response Organisation.

It puts it among the top half dozen in the list of Australia’s most costly disasters for the insurance industry and the second most costly fire in Australia’s history. The fires destroyed the most homes on a single day in Australian history.

IDRO National Co-ordinator Christopher Henri said the $350.7 million “contributes to a total of more than $9.1 billion of insured losses for natural disasters since 1967, with the largest being $1.7 billion for the April 1999 Sydney hailstorm, followed by the 1989 Newcastle Earthquake at $1.1 billion.”

Other pay-outs (in today’s dollars) include $837 million for the Darwin cyclone and more than $350 for the Ash Wednesday fires in February 1983.

Three thousand home and contents claims arose from the Canberra fires costing $199 million. The 151 commercial and industrial claims will cost an estimated $146.5 million. These included the claims for Mount Stromlo and the pine plantations. The fire claimed 411 motor vehicles costing $4.8 million. Some of the commercial and industrial claims are yet to be finalised, with virtually no domestic claim outstanding.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_extent of insurance loss”

The majority of houses destroyed in bushfires survive the passage of the fire front. Wind-borne burning debris causes the most damage.

Direct flame contact and radiant heat can ignite and destroy houses, but they are only significant during the few minutes it takes the fire front to pass.

But houses can be hit by showers of burning debris for hours before and after the fire front passes. Strong winds are a danger, as was evident during the January 18 firestorm.

These facts need to be considered when designing a house.

Burning debris carried on the high winds can ignite houses in several ways. It can pile up against timber used at or near ground level such as stumps, posts, sub-floor enclosures, steps, door and window frames. It can accumulate on timber used for decks, verandahs and pergolas. It can lodge in gaps in and around timber and other combustible materials used for exterior wall cladding, and door and window frames. And burning debris can enter the house through windows broken by heat or flying debris.

The steeper the slope, the faster the fire travels. In the ACT the majority of winds driving bushfires are westerlies, or north westerlies.

The main strategy in protecting a house is to prevent external ignitions, and stop the fire getting inside. Design and material choices can help.

A simple roof design can lessen the risk of bushfire damage and is the easiest to protect. Roofs with intersecting planes and valleys may form dead air pockets where debris and embers collect. Steel roofing is the safest. However, gaps must be sealed or protected to stop ember or spark penetration. Roofing must withstand strong winds and resist dislodgement to prevent the entry of embers.

Roof valleys, dormer windows and skylights provide opportunities for embers to lodge on a roof.

Tiled roofs should be fully sarked and fixed.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_design with bushfires in mind”

ACT Bushfire Recovery Centre Community Development Activities

Region Event Partnership
ACT Recovery Centre “Autumn Reflections” – cruise & lunch for elderly19 May 2003

* Canberra Southern Cross Club
* Canberra Cabs
* Anglicare

Dr John Irvine Parenting Forums8 & 9 June 2003

* Lions Clubs of Canberra & District
* Salvation Army
* Parentlink
* Duffy Primary School
* St Judes Primary School

Winter Warming BasketsJune & July 2003

* Uniting Church Parishes of Canberra
* Clints Warehouse

Health & Wellbeing Expo18 July 2003

* Woden Plaza
* Woden Community Services
* Communities@work

Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_community development activities”

More than half of Australians (53 per cent) were opposed to the ACT Government’s scheme for compensating the fire victims.

Under the scheme, uninsured home owners who lost their homes were paid $10,000 but insured home owners got $5000.

More than a third (35 per cent) supported the scheme and the rest had no opinion, according to a survey done by AAMI insurance. Nearly a half of Canberrans (46 per cent) supported the scheme.

People who objected to the scheme generally thought it was unfair that the payments were not uniform and that the scheme discriminated against people who were insured.

Reasons for supporting the scheme ranged from “It helps people to recover – they still need help” to “Not everyone can afford insurance”.

A few weeks before the January fires, ActewAGL conducted a simulation exercise involving a truck crashing into a main water-supply dam.

This exercise tested matters like water contamination, how to respond and deal with the threat to the water supply.

Low and behold, on January 13, five days before the fires hit Canberra, a helicopter fighting fires crashed into Bendora Dam, one of the ACT’s major water storages. It created potential health concerns over aviation fuel in the drinking water.

The real test was to come.

ActewAGL continuously looks at its engineering, environmental management, innovation, contingency planning, safety and management of infrastructure restoration.

It looks at risk assessment and mitigation, regular crisis simulation and extensive emergency response training. It has a specialist risk management engineer.

Before January 18, ActewAGL had identified both bushfires and water supply contamination as high operational risks.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_be prepared”

Australia’s devastating summer bushfires have made householders more aware of fire safety around the home, according to the 2003 AAMI Firescreen.

“Almost one-quarter of Australians have taken extra fire precautions, as a result of the recent bushfires,” Mr Hughes said.

“Fifteen per cent of householders responded by clearing gutters and 14 per cent responded by clearing trees and branches around the house.

“They have also taken measures such as developing an escape plan in the event of a fire, removing rubbish from around the house and purchasing fire equipment, including fire extinguishers and smoke alarms.

“We found residents in bushfire-prone areas reacted most strongly to the fires. More than three out of every five residents in bushfire-prone areas have taken extra fire precautions since the January bushfire disaster.”

Almost one in four Australians (23 per cent) has adopted extra fire precautions as a result of the recent devastating bushfires.

One in seven Australians (15 per cent) consider their home to be in a bushfire-prone area.

More than one in five Australians (22 per cent) have experienced a fire in their home.

According to AAMI’s claims data, Saturday evening is the riskiest time of the week for a fire.

Cooking is the single biggest cause of fires in the home: 55 per cent of home fires start in the kitchen.

Almost nine in ten Australians (87 per cent) have some kind of fire prevention equipment in their home, including smoke alarms (84 per cent) and fire extinguishers (34 per cent).

The average Australian home has 1.9 smoke alarms.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_aami research”

Fire and gardens

Gardens can help or hinder bushfire threat.

Choosing the right plants, eliminating the build-up of combustible material, appropriate landscaping materials and sprinkler systems can cut fire risk.

Plant trees at a good distance from the house to ensure that limbs and branches do not touch or overhang the roof and that gutters do not fill up with dead leaves.

Shrubs and ground covers should not be planted against the house – maintain a clear area and use non-flammable surface materials such as paving, pebble mulch or irrigated lawn.

Plant fire resistant trees and shrubs as hedges to provide a windbreak on the side from where the worst fires can be expected. This cuts wind, the fire intensity, radiant heat and rate of spread and it intercepts burning embers. The crowns of trees shouldn’t touch each other.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_gardens and fire”

The destruction wrought by the fires will add to the ACT’s economic growth.

Economists do not measure human suffering or the destruction of property, but economic activity. Also, the bulk of the money for the reconstruction will come from outside the ACT. It will come in the form of $350 million in insurance money and in the form of Federal Government special disaster grants and other aid promised at the time.

Added to the reconstruction will be a boost in retail as people replace housing contents.

The construction and retail boost will have a multiplier effect through the ACT economy.

But perhaps a further $100 million will be sourced within the ACT. Part of that will be people replacing uninsured and under-insured contents and buildings. The rate of non-insurance of buildings was extremely low. Just six out of the 500 destroyed houses and a further four of the damaged houses.

So the lion’s share of reconstruction will come from without, but even the internally financed reconstruction adds to economic activity.

The consulting firm Access Economics says that the ACT is likely to retain the position of having the lowest unemployment in the nation for some yet because of the fires.
Continue reading “2003_07_july_bushfires_economic outlook”