@conference {bnh-2931, title = {Effect of prescribed burning on wildfire severity - a landscape case study from the 2003 fires in Victoria}, booktitle = {AFAC16}, year = {2016}, month = {08/2016}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Brisbane}, abstract = {

This study examined the effect of previous fuel reduction burning (FRB) on the severity of the 1 million ha+ 2003 Alpine Fire in eastern Victoria, which was one of the most extensive and severe fires to have occurred in south-eastern Australia in the preceding century. Over one million hectares of largely forests, woodlands and alpine vegetation was burnt in January and February 2003 in the state of Victoria, and another contiguous 600,000 ha was burnt in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, making these the most extensive fires in the area since 1939.


Some of the unusual features of this fire were that it burnt a large contiguous area stretching 180 km from east to west and 110 km from north to south in Victoria, and it burnt over a full two-month period. The size of the fire and the severity of the seasonal conditions (Bureau of Meteorology 2003) meant that about 49 per cent of the area burnt resulted in complete overstorey canopy removal, either through crown fire or scorching and resultant leaf loss. Very few areas remained unburnt within the perimeter of the fire. As the burnt area contained 100+ recent fuel reduction burns and wildfires (last 10 years, Fig. 1), this posed a rare opportunity to assess the effectiveness of prescribed burning on such a large scale and subjected to such high-intensity fires.

}, author = {Tolhurst, K.G. and G.J. McCarthy} } @article {BF-3089, title = {The effect of aerial suppression on the containment time of Australian wildfires estimated by fire management personnel}, journal = {International Journal of Wildland Fire}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The addition of aerial firefighting resources to wildfire suppression operations does not always result in faster fire containment. In this paper, containment times of fires with aerial suppression are compared with estimated containment times for the same fires without aerial suppression. Senior firefighting personnel who had worked on each fire estimated whether fires could have been contained within a time class if aircraft were not available. Data from 251 wildfires were analysed based on four fire-containment time classes: <=2, 2{\textendash}4, 4{\textendash}8 and 8{\textendash}24 h from the start of initial attack. Aircraft were perceived to reduce time to containment when firefighting conditions were more challenging owing to fuel hazard rating, weather conditions, slope, resource response times and area burning at initial attack. Comparisons of containment time with and without aircraft can be used to develop operational tools to help dispatchers decide when aircraft should be deployed to newly detected fires.}, doi = {10.1071/WF11063}, author = {Matt P Plucinski and G.J. McCarthy and Jennifer J Hollis and J.S. Gould} } @article {BF-1047, title = {The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Aerial Firefighting in Australia}, year = {2007}, month = {7/05/2007}, institution = {Bushfire CRC }, type = {Research Report}, author = {Matt P Plucinski and J.S. Gould and G.J. McCarthy and Jennifer J Hollis} } @article {BF-1042, title = {Aerial Suppression Experiment, Cambridge Tasmania, 21-23 February 2005}, volume = {47}, year = {2006}, month = {6/30/2006}, institution = {Ensis- CSIRO }, type = {Technical Report}, url = {http://www.bushfirecrc.com/sites/default/files/managed/resource/2005_suppression_experiment.pdf}, author = {Matt P Plucinski and G.J. McCarthy and J.S. Gould} }