Can a change in strategy from attack to prioritised defence limit the losses of our worst fires?
By Damien Killalea, Director of Community Fire Safety, Tasmania Fire Service In its Interim Report, the Bushfires Royal Commission has made it clear that the provision of warnings to communities was inadequate and this meant many civilians received little or no warning of the impending fire impact, and many of them subsequently perished in the fires. It is not yet clear what other findings the Commission will make in relation to operational strategies on Black Saturday, particularly in relation to the priorities incident management teams (IMTs) assigned to their firefighting crews for the protection of life and property. The events of that day, and what we now know about what happened, give us all cause to stop and reassess whether our approach to fighting fires is as strategically savvy as it could be. Are we doing all we can to protect people and the communities they live in? Or have we let our propensity to jump in boots and all to fight the fire cloud our judgement on what the actu
