General News
27 January, 2024
Planning vital to prepare for the bushfire season
Reducing bushfire risk to protect life, property and the environment is at the heart of what Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) does.
Reducing bushfire risk to protect life, property and the environment is at the heart of what Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic) does.
That’s why we’re focused on planning and delivering our bushfire risk management program all year round.
Last year's heavy rain and floods across large parts of the state had a serious impact on our communities.
This means fewer opportunities to lower bushfire risk through planned burning and other measures.
Following three years of lower-fire-risk seasons, this season has already seen a significant number of bushfires, particularly in the east of the state.
My thoughts go to the communities affected by bushfire and I thank our crews, contractors, incident management personnel and partner agencies for the work they do to keep our communities safe.
Preparing for a Victorian summer takes a lot of planning.
As part of our year-round approach to reducing bushfire risk, last year we delivered bushfire risk reduction works across more than 92,000 hectares of public land across the state.
This included planned burning and mechanical treatments such as mulching, mowing, slashing and spraying, as well as constructing and maintaining strategic fuel breaks and upgrading and maintaining the public land road network.
Despite the fire activity we have already seen, our bushfire risk management program will continue when conditions are suitable and it is safe to do so.
Planned burning, mechanical treatments and planned burn preparation are our highest priority into late spring and early summer because if a bushfire starts these activities will help us to suppress it.
Reducing fuels like grass, leaves, bark, shrubs and fallen branches means fires are less intense and slower to spread, which helps firefighters keep bushfires smaller and contained before they pose a risk to the things we care about: our communities and our environment.
Victoria will always have bushfires but we want our communities to know that when a bushfire starts, we are ready to respond with close to 1800 FFMVic personnel on the front line this season.
Our firefighting equipment includes more than 500 ultralight tankers, around 100 heavy tankers and more than 300 additional plant and trucks including dozers, tractors, graders, loaders, forklifts and excavators.
Ground operations are also supported by Victoria’s aerial fleet of 51 aircraft contracted for the 2023-24 summer season.
The fleet includes a mix of firebombing, air supervision and aerial-information-gathering aircraft.
It is supplemented by up to 100 aircraft that can be called in when needed.
But Victorians also need to be prepared for bushfires if they live, work or visit areas at risk of fire.
With drier and warmer than usual conditions, we expect Victorians will be looking forward to getting outdoors to explore and enjoy our beautiful state forests and parks.
To keep up to date on planned burns near you, sign up to receive notifications at Planned Burns Victoria or download the VicEmergency app.
You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Chris Hardman
Chief Fire Officer
Forest Fire Management Victoria