By Jared Smith
The Daily News
HAWERA, New Zealand — Whether they are Australians, Americans or New Zealanders, those attending a conference face the same issues when it comes to rural fire safety.
Hawera hosted more than 145 guests from overseas and around New Zealand for the Forest and Rural Fire Association of New Zealand’s (FRFANZ) annual conference last week.
FRFANZ chairman and former Eltham resident Doug Ashford said it was the first time the conference had been held in a small provincial area.
The biggest issues in rural firefighting today were finding volunteers and working in the communities, Mr Ashford said.
Staff now covered everything from road accidents to medical assistance, floods, and co-ordination with urban fire units, Civil Defence and ambulance groups.
The theme for the conference was “Fire Smart”. Speakers from the United States and South Australia talked about advertising and awareness campaigns in their fire-prone areas.
Mr Ashford said similar schemes were just starting in New Zealand.
“The issues are the same — just a different language. We’re trying to tie it all in so everyone can recognise it, wherever they go to.”
During her presentation, South Australian community education manager Fiona Dunstan said statistics showed that 58 percent of households in the state’s bushfire risk areas had no response plan, because they thought a fire could not happen to them.
She had more sobering statistics from neighbouring Victoria — of the 173 people who died on the “Black Saturday” of February 7, 2009, 42 percent were elderly, very young or disabled. The fires spread so quickly that people were unable to get away, she said.
Another outcome of the Victorian bushfires was that rural fire authorities’ “literature” was judged not to have implicitly warned people that staying to defend their homes or leaving late could be fatal. After the fires, the authorities had hardened that up, she said.
Michele Steinberg, from the National Fire Protection Association in the US, said “Fire Smart” campaigns there emphasised how simple burning embers were “a disaster”.
They taught people to “harden homes” by addressing both the risk of embers and “surface fuel” — like pine needles in gutters, and long grass around a house — as well as parking vehicles and machinery away from buildings.
“If it’s attached to the house, it’s part of the house.”
The conference at the TSB Hub was organised by the South Taranaki District Council’s rural fire team.
Principal rural fire officer John Gunn said it was a real coup getting the event for the first time outside a major metropolitan area. “It’s fantastic that we have got a facility which allows us to host events like this in South Taranaki, which have positive flow-on effects for our businesses.”
The conference concluded with a display of fixed-wing firefighting by Wanganui Aero Works at the Hawera Aerodrome, followed by a bus tour of South Taranaki’s major industrial sites. South Taranaki’s major industrial sites.
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