Councils pull together to assist with fire management

Above: Andrew Strauss, left, with LGFSG team members for the Cudlee Creek fire

Andrew Strauss has had 14 years’ experience as a CFS volunteer and 33 years with local Councils. He has worked for Burnside council as City Coordinator for 8 years. He needed to use all those skills and experience when called to assist in the management of the Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island fires. Andrew was Local Government Liaison Officer for the Local Government Functional Support Group (LGFSG) based at Mt Barker, from Friday 20 December – when the fire started – through to 30 December.

Under the State Emergency Management Plan, the LGFSG is responsible for coordinating the response from councils during emergencies, as well as efforts during the recovery phase.

The LGFSG has been very active over the past two months, working around the clock with councils to help the CFS and other agencies respond to, and recover from, the bushfires that have swept across our State. This support has included:

• Providing coordination of local government resources

• Providing staff at the State Emergency Centre

• Providing local government liaison officers at the CFS Incident Command Centre

• Representation on the State Recovery Operations Group.

Andrew played a pivotal role in assisting multiple agencies by allocating resources and identifying appropriate field staff. “It was important that all the agencies involved knew where and how to get extra resources they needed,” said Andrew. “My role was to delegate tasks to the appropriate agency or, if a Council task, to allocate staff and equipment.” So when the CFS wanted to hold a community meeting it was Andrew who liaised with the local council to hire a venue. “It was like a bigger scale of my day-to-day job but with the added pressure of knowing people’s lives and properties had been lost.” Andrew also ensured a local council staff member was in the field with teams that have come to assist from other council’s so they could use their local knowledge.

Eleven councils assisted with the Cudlee Creek fire in the Adelaide Hills region, and 12 helped on Kangaroo Island (with an additional 13 councils on standby, ready to contribute if needed). This support has come not only from metropolitan areas but also very small regional councils, who have sent the limited staff and resources they have available.

One of the big tasks to be done was to assess all the burnt and damaged trees to ensure they were safe or needed to be removed. Councils around the state pulled together and provided teams of arborists to inspect a huge number of damaged trees. Chris Hawkins led the Burnside team on Monday 23 December, which was allocated several large streets at Harrogate. Chris had been one of the first arborists on scene after the 2015 Sampson Flat fire and drew on that experience. “Assessing trees which have suffered through a bushfire requires a different skill and experience level,” says Chris. “Fire can burn underground in the roots of trees for several metres.” Chris and his team inspected thousands of trees to assess if they needed removal, were safe or needed ongoing monitoring. “The basic rule was – if there’s smoke, it (the tree) goes!” They assessed the trees’ structure including signs of burning underground which will impact the trees roots and stability. On the first day Chris and his team identified more than 20 large eucalypts which required removal – after that they stopped counting! But they did save as many trees as possible. “It was hot and tiring work. I’m asthmatic so the smoke was a problem for me,” he said. But even more distressing for Chris were the numbers of injured and dead wildlife he came across. “We saw lots of dead wildlife, the loss was devastating.”

A week after Christmas Andrew got a call from the Local Government State Duty Officer. The Kangaroo Island fire was out of control and Andrew was needed there as Local Government Planner to assist the Incident Management Team. “It was a challenging time,” he says. “The speed of the fire was frightening and the remoteness of the island meant communications were not always the best. There were times when I wasn’t sure where all the crews were.” Andrew says the locals were generally supportive and happy to have the extra help. Over five days Andrew clocked up more than 80 hours in the field. But he does not want extra pay or time off. “That was my duty,” he says. “It was my contribution and was great experience for me. I am better trained and have even more experience for the next time.”

Let’s hope ‘the next time’ is a long way off.