I read about the lost firefighter with much sadness. It's always tragic when someone is working to protect others and pays the ultimate price
No doubt everyone there is doing their utmost.
There's quite a lot of sharing of information, techniques, experiences, tactics, and so on between the fire fighting organisations around the world. I know in past seasons, we have sent people there and vice versa (our seasons being opposite, obviously). Rugged areas preclude much in the way of intervention but, of course, they are typically less populated as well. Hazard reduction focusses on the areas closer to populations and in corridors likely to channel fires toward those populated areas.
Just 9 years ago we had our worst ever bushfire disaster in which 173 people lost their lives and another 414 were injured
There was also massive loss of property - over 2,000 homes destroyed plus another 1,500 structures damaged and over a million acres burned out with 12,000 stock animals killed and an estimated one million native animals. There were around 400 individual fires burning in the area at the time. The aftermath of that is what lead to a new categorisation table, including the "catastrophic" level. The ensuing Royal Commission found that a lack of hazard reduction and poor management of the fuel loads contributed significantly to the disaster. This despite such processes being normal and standard for years across the country. Sometimes processes breakdown or people forget why they're so important.
Again, I'm hoping everyone else there remains safe and that you will be able to return to your home soon.
