Experiences of sheltering during the Black Saturday bushfires: Implications for policy and research

More than half of those who died in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, were sheltering inside a house at the time of their death. This marks a shift in bushfire fatality trends, which previously saw most fatalities occurring outside while residents attempted to protect assets or evacuate. This paper presents findings from research that examined people\u27s experiences of sheltering in and exiting houses, sheds, personal shelters and other structures on Black Saturday. Qualitative data were sourced from 315 semi-structured interviews with residents affected by the bushfires and 50 witness statements presented to the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. Results indicate that despite limited planning and preparation specifically for sheltering on Black Saturday, many residents protected themselves from fire by sheltering inside houses, other structures and in open spaces. Most sheltered actively, engaging in regular monitoring and action to protect the shelter and occupants. However, some found sheltering challenging due to heat, smoke and responsibilities for children, vulnerable household members and the incapacitated. Misconceptions persist about the safety offered by houses and, in particular, bathrooms during bushfires. Education and advice should emphasise the need to plan and prepare for active sheltering, regardless of whether people intend to stay and defend or leave. The paper offers recommendations to promote planning and preparedness for active sheltering and identifies areas for further research

Surviving bushfire: the role of shelters and sheltering practices during the Black Saturday bushfires

The decision of whether to leave or stay and defend is a well communicated public safety policy for those at risk from bushfire in Australia. Advice relating to sheltering practices during bushfire is less developed. This paper presents findings from a study of sheltering practices during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. The study examined the circumstances and challenges experienced by residents when sheltering and/or exiting houses, sheds, and personal bunkers. The analysis considered a number of factors including human behaviour and decision making, house design and construction, the surrounding landscape and fire behaviour. The results show the need for contingency planning and the need for active sheltering, involving regular monitoring of conditions inside and outside the shelter and actions to protect the shelter and its occupants. Also discussed is the tenability and location of the shelters and key questions around how bushfire-related building controls can improve the predictability of shelter failure, reduce the rate of shelter tenability loss and facilitate egress. This research highlights the need for enhanced community engagement and education to encourage residents to plan and prepare for active sheltering

Carbon, water and land use footprints of beef cattle production systems in Southern Australia

For agri-food products, environmental impacts related to greenhouse gas emissions, water use and land use are all typically of high concern. Concurrent assessment is therefore important to report meaningfully on environmental performance and to avoid potential negative consequences of narrowly focussed environmental improvement strategies, such as carbon footprint reduction alone. In this study, land use footprints were calculated for six diverse beef cattle production systems in southern Australia (cradle to farm gate) using net primary productivity of potential biomass (NPP0) as a means of describing the intrinsic productive capability of occupied land. The results per kg live weight, ranging from 86 to 172 m2 yr-e (where 1 m2 yr-e represents 1 m2 of land occupation for 1 year at the global average NPP0) represent between 1.3 and 2.7% of an average global citizen's annual land use footprint, and highlight the importance of land use in beef cattle production. These results were approximately 10 and 1000 times the normalised carbon and water scarcity footprint results. The diversity of land types supporting livestock production underscores the importance of taking into account land quality in the calculation of a land use footprint. While NPP0 can be used to improve land use assessment beyond a simple measure of land area, further development of the land use footprint indicator is recommended and discussed

Environmental circumstances surrounding bushfire fatalities in Australia 1901-2011

This paper describes the development and analysis of a dataset covering bushfire related life loss in Australia over the past 110 years (1901-2011). Over this time period 260 bushfires have been associated with a total of 825 known civilian and firefighter fatalities. This database was developed to provide an evidence base from which an Australian national fire danger rating system can be developed and has benefits in formalising our understanding of community exposure to bushfire. The database includes detail of the spatial, temporal and localised context in which the fatalities occurred. This paper presents the analysis of 674 civilian fatalities. The analysis has focused on characterising the relationship between fatal exposure location, weather conditions (wind speed, temperature, relative humidity and drought indices), proximity to fuel, activities and decision making leading up to the death. The analysis demonstrates that civilian fatalities were dominated by several iconic bushfires that have occurred under very severe weather conditions. The fatalities from Australia's 10 worst bushfire days accounted for 64% of all civilian fatalities. Over 50% of all fatalities occurred on days where the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) exceeded 100 (the current threshold for declaring a day as 'catastrophic') proximal to the fatality. The dominant location category was open air representing 58% of all fatalities followed by 28% in structures, and 8% in vehicles (6% are unknown). For bushfires occurring under weather conditions exceeding an FFDI value of 100, fatalities within structures represented over 60% of all fatalities. These were associated with people dying while attempting to shelter mainly in their place of residence. Of the fatalities that occurred inside a structure in a location that was specifically known, 41% occurred in rooms with reduced visibility to the outside conditions. Over 78% of all fatalities occurred within 30m of the forest.12 page(s