@book {bnh-7290, title = {A handbook of wildfire engineering: guidance for wildfire suppression and resilient urban design}, year = {2020}, pages = {179}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Each year firefighters from career and volunteer agencies across Australia respond to wildfires that impact the urban interface. When such an event occurs during a period of intense fire behavior, the conditions are often incompatible with life for persons either caught in the open or those seeking refuge in a vehicle. In order to improve firefighter safety and operational effectiveness during landscape scale wildfires, as well as providing sound engineering guidance to improve community resilience to wildfire impacts, this textbook forms part of the lead author{\textquoteright}s PhD and examines critical components of wildfire response. These components are the wildfire fighting strategies and tactics applied during a landscape scale wildfire event; the procedures and protective systems utilised in the event of burnover; operational risk management; and wildfire resilient urban design. A Handbook of Wildfire Engineering (the Handbook) provides firefighters, engineers and town planners with detailed technical approaches and analysis to enhance the resilience of communities in areas prone to wildfire impacts, and enhance the safety and effectiveness of wildfire suppression at the urban interface during catastrophic wildfire conditions.

Each chapter of the Handbook is designed to build upon the previous, providing a holistic approach to understanding vegetation and wildfire basics before exploring evidence based wildfire suppression. The critical linkage between wildfire suppression, firefighter safety and urban design is also explored. Whilst the primary focus of this Handbook is wildfire suppression, there are many aspects applicable to urban designers and policy makers. These are summarised at the conclusion of each chapter.

During the preparation of this book, Australia was suffering from catastrophic wildfires on both the west and east coasts and, tragically, civilians and firefighters alike were injured or killed. The lead author was deployed as a Strike Team Leader from Western Australia and was tasked with wildfire suppression and property defense near Walcha, New South Wales. In addition to his own local experiences in Margaret River in 2011 and Yarloop 2016, during the 2019 NSW deployment he witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of wildfire on firefighters and the communities, survived near miss entrapments and nights spent on the fireground cut off by fire behaviour and falling trees. This book is dedicated to all those affected by wildfires, particularly for the firefighters of all backgrounds and jurisdictions who put themselves in harm{\textquoteright}s way to protect life, property and the environment. May the guidance provided in this book help firefighters return safely to their loved ones and provide enhanced protection of communities in wildfire prone areas.

}, keywords = {engineering, resilience, suppression, urban design, Wildfire}, issn = {978-0-6482756-8-8}, author = {Greg Penney and Daryoush Habibi and Marcus Cattani and Steven Richardson} } @article {bnh-6802, title = {RUIM {\textendash} A fire safety engineering model for rural urban interface firefighter taskforce deployment}, journal = {Fire Safety Journal}, volume = {113}, year = {2020}, month = {05/2020}, abstract = {

Firefighting at the rural urban interface remains one of the most dangerous activities undertaken by fire services internationally. Whilst there is a significant volume of literature and describing methods for fire engineering safety analysis in the urban environment, a significant gap remains in the context of the rural urban interface. To address this, this article presents the Rural Urban Interface Model (RUIM). An adaptation of the Fire Brigade Intervention Model (FBIM), the RUIM enables systematic analysis of firefighter safety during catastrophic and dynamic wildfire events. When applied correctly, the RUIM provides additional guidance to Incident Controllers and Incident Management Teams regarding the suitability and safety of defensive firefighting strategies. Ultimately, the inclusion of the RUIM as part of operational fire ground analysis may reduce the potential for fatalities or injuries arising from firefighting taskforces being caught in wildfire burnover.

}, keywords = {fire engineering, firefighting, RUI, Rural urban interface, safety, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.102986}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379711219305843}, author = {Greg Penney and Daryoush Habibi and Marcus Cattani} } @mastersthesis {bnh-8090, title = {Wildfire suppression {\textendash} an international analysis of operations, strategy and firefighter safety}, volume = {Doctor of Philosophy}, year = {2020}, month = {10/2020}, pages = {430}, school = {Edith Cowan University}, abstract = {

Wildfire suppression remains an inherently dangerous yet increasingly frequent task for fire services throughout Australia and the world. Each year firefighters from career and volunteer agencies respond to wildfires that impact the urban interface. When such an event occurs during a period of intense fire behaviour the conditions are often incompatible with life for persons either caught in the open or those seeking refuge in a vehicle. In order to improve firefighter safety and operational effectiveness at the rural urban interface (RUI) during landscape scale wildfires, this dissertation serves to examine critical components of wildfire response, most notably wildfire suppression strategies and tactics applied during a landscape scale wildfire event and the procedures and protective systems utilised in the event of firefighter entrapment and burnover.

The theme of the research is firefighter safety and suppression effectiveness during mega-wildfire response at the rural urban interface (RUI), also known as the wildland urban interface (WUI). Mega-wildfires are those landscape wildfires that overwhelm firefighting resources, typically generate their own localized weather systems, and require campaign style efforts lasting extended durations. Wildfire events including Margaret River (2011), and Yarloop (2016) in Western Australia, the devastating Californian and Greece wildfires (2018) and the unprecedented wildfires throughout eastern Australia in late 2019 / early 2020 meet this category. The RUI is the land where towns and cities exist alongside forest and other vegetation that supports the development of an established headfire with a quasi-steady rate of spread (RoS) across the landscape. In such instances, firefighters are called on to protect vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure from the ember storms, radiant heat and flames that accompany the head fire. In doing so, firefighters face great personal peril. If the incorrect suppression tactics or strategies are applied, or if wildfire behaviour suddenly changes, firefighter entrapment and burnover resulting in significant injury or fatality remains an all too common consequence.

The studies not only quantify the severity of the conditions firefighters encounter when attempting to protect life, property and the environment at the RUI, but also find traditional wildfire suppression strategies and tactics at the RUI need to be reexamined. Whilst the field of wildfire engineering is in its infancy, the studies suggest its development and adoption into wildfire suppression operations has the potential to improve both operational effectiveness and firefighter safety.

}, keywords = {analysis, firefighter, international, operations, safety, strategy, suppression, Wildfire}, url = {https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2349/}, author = {Greg Penney} } @article {bnh-5299, title = {Calculation of critical water flow rates for wildfire suppression}, journal = {Fire}, volume = {2}, year = {2019}, month = {01/2019}, chapter = {3}, abstract = {

Predicting water suppression requirements and its impacts on firefighting strategies and logistics within the urban environment has been the subject of many previous studies, however the same level of research has yet to be applied in the realm of wildfire suppression. To work towards addressing this knowledge gap, this paper provides guidance for Incident Controllers in relation to critical water flow rates required to extinguish large wildfire across a wide range of forest fuel loads, fire weather and active fire front depths. This is achieved through mathematical empirical analysis of water flow rates required for head fire suppression during 540 simulated wildfires in forest vegetation. This research applies a fire engineering approach to wildfire suppression logistics and deterministically assess the suitability of appliance and aircraft based head fire suppression. The results highlight the limitations of offensive wildfire suppression involving direct head fire attacks by appliances once wildfires attain a quasi-steady state in forest fuels.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/fire2010003}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/2/1/3/htm}, author = {Greg Penney and Daryoush Habibi and Marcus Cattani and Murray Carter} } @article {bnh-6337, title = {Exploring ISO31000 Risk Management during Dynamic Fire and Emergency Operations in Western Australia}, journal = {Fire}, volume = {2}, year = {2019}, month = {04/2019}, abstract = {

Firefighting remains an inherently dangerous occupation with serious injuries and fatalities reported globally. The Australasian Fire Authorities Council adopt ISO31000 as the standard of risk management for all firefighting and mitigation operations. However, previous studies have reported that decisions made by incident controllers during dynamic emergencies are typically reactionary and only partially compliant with the ISO31000 process. This paper describes research using new qualitative and quantitative data that support incident controllers in managing risk during dynamic fire and emergency situations, in accordance with ISO31000. The research was completed through two studies. The first study explored risk attitudes of serving fire service officers through semistructured interviews and in-depth structured surveys. The second study identified the severity of firefighting consequences and likelihood through analysis of Western Australian fire service safety and incident reports between January 1st, 2001 and January 1st, 2015. The overall and conditional probability of specific injuries during the various tasks undertaken during emergency incidents was calculated using Bayesian statistical analysis. The findings indicate that whilst current practices are arguably effective in preventing worst case consequences being realised, improvements in operational risk management can be made in accordance with ISO31000 during emergencies and in pre-incident planning.

}, keywords = {Emergency management, firefighting, probability, risk, risk management}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/fire2020021}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/2/2/21}, author = {Greg Penney} } @article {bnh-6332, title = {Firefighter tenability and its influence on wildfire suppression}, journal = {Fire Safety Journal}, volume = {106}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, pages = {38-51}, abstract = {

This paper provides analysis of international fire service siege wildfire suppression thresholds and reports on the effect of forest fuel structure, fire weather condition and terrain on the suitability of suppression strategies. Further, this study applies a fire engineering approach whereby siege wildfire behaviour is deterministically assessed against firefighter tenability thresholds. This research is significant as it is the first study to consider human tenability as a factor in determining appropriateness of wildfire suppression strategies and tactics. The results clearly demonstrate offensive siege wildfire suppression involving direct head fire attacks by personnel and appliances exposes firefighters to untenable conditions well in advance of the head fire edge. Accordingly fire services may need to consider earlier instigation of defensive strategies and increased reliance on aerial wildfire suppression.

}, keywords = {fire engineering, Fire weather, fuel, suppression thresholds, Wildfire}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.03.012}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379711218303515}, author = {Greg Penney and Daryoush Habibi and Marcus Cattani} } @article {bnh-5300, title = {Modelling of radiant heat flux and rate of spread of wildfire within the urban environment}, journal = {Fire}, volume = {2}, year = {2019}, month = {01/2019}, chapter = {4}, abstract = {

One approach to increase community resilience to wildfire impacts is the enhancement of residential construction standards in an effort to provide protective shelters for families within their own homes. Current wildfire models reviewed in this study assume fire growth is unrestricted by vegetation fuel bed geometry; the head fire has attained a quasi-steady rate of spread; and the shielding effects of urban development are ignored. As a result, radiant heat flux may be significantly overestimated for small vegetation fires in road reserves, urban parklands, and similar scenarios. This paper proposes two new models to address this issue, and utilises two case studies for comparison against existing approaches. The findings are significant as this is the first study to analyse these factors from a fire engineering perspective, and to demonstrate that the use of landscape scale or siege wildfire models may not be appropriate within the urban context. The development of enhanced wildfire models will have a significant impact on town planning and construction practices in areas prone to wildfires, as well as firefighting suppression efforts when these events occur.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/fire2010004 }, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/2/1/4/htm}, author = {Greg Penney and Steven Richardson} }