These new Extreme fire behaviour knowledge modules support the ongoing professional development of experienced Fire Behaviour Analysts, Environmental Prediction Services Meteorologists and Decision Support Meteorologists to improve their ability to evaluate extreme fire behaviour risk and provide operational guidance and fire weather intelligence.
Information within these knowledge modules may also be relevant to researchers and students studying fire science.
The modules were developed to improve the evaluation of extreme fire behaviour risk and to provide required operational guidance and fire weather intelligence to inform operational response and fireground safety.
Part of the Centre’s commitment to supporting the translation of research into practice, these knowledge modules are the practical application of Centre research undertaken following the destructive 2019-20 Black Summer fire season where fire conditions were at times driven by complex interactions between the fire and the atmosphere that produced extreme local fire behaviour, which were extraordinary and challenging to firefighters.
Using advanced super-computer simulations, the project and subsequent knowledge modules were developed with the support of by Dr Mika Peace at the Bureau of Meteorology, Predictive Services Specialist Chris Morton at the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victoria and Curio. Meteorology and bushfire behaviour models were compared to understand the processes driving challenging and destructive fires and how both the fire and weather change in response to each other.
Further information about the research project and analysis can be found at Modelling fire weather interactions using the ACCESS-Fire model.
The knowledge modules cover:
- Introduction to extreme fire behaviour
- Fire-generated vortices
- Low-level jets
Completion of these modules provides information relating to complex fire behaviours and enables effective collaborative approaches between professional Fire Behaviour Analysists and Meteorologists, drawing on their different expertise and intelligence sources to more effectively determine and predict risk factors and considerations during bushfires. The modules draw on the current practice of experienced Fire Behaviour Analysists and Meteorologists on how they have worked together during recent bushfires.
The knowledge modules can be accessed in two ways:
- integration into your organisation’s existing Learning Management System; or
- individual staff access via AFAC’s learning platform.
The knowledge modules will be made available upon completion of a licencing agreement with the Centre, authorised by a member of organisational senior executive. The licencing agreement can be requested from research@naturalhazards.com.au.
These modules are eligible as CPD through AFAC’s Emergency Management Professionalisation Scheme (EMPS).