The man at the centre of two planned burns that escaped control in the Cobaw Forest 12 years apart has spoken publicly for the first time about what went wrong.
Lee Gleeson was the planner and controller of the most recent Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning burn that escaped its boundaries on Grand Final Day 2015 in hot, blustery conditions, destroying four homes and burning 3000 hectares of land. He said that despite popular opinion, the burn did not escape control due to negligence.
“No one goes out there to light a burn that has potential to get away,” he told the Express.
“There are many factors that affect the result of a burn and sometimes there are unforeseen factors, sometimes there is operator error with lighting patterns and sometimes Mother Nature plays a trump card.
“In this case Mother Nature played a trump card.”
Mr Gleeson said the weather forecast on both days before the burn was lit had indicated five days well within prescription to complete the burn.
On Wednesday, the burn was ignited about 10.30am and ignition was completed about 4pm.
“We only completed about 60 per cent of the original planned burn area as we wanted to make the burn safe before the weekend,” Mr Gleeson said.
“Our planning ensured that we maintained a 24-hour presence on the burn, mopping up and blacking out to make the burn safe.
“By the time we got to the weather briefing on Thursday, the weather had got marginally worse but was still well within prescription.
“Monday and Tuesday after Grand Final Day were potentially spike days but this would have been five to six days after ignition was completed on the Wednesday.”
LESSONS LEARNT
Mr Gleeson said he was determined that the 2015 burn would be completed without incident, having learnt from the 2003 burn escape in the Cobaw Forest.
“Staff did not leave the fire line on Grand Final Day, occasionally a vehicle will head out for water but no one was instructed to leave the burn,” he said.
“While we were conscious of the public holiday on the Friday and then Grand Final Day, our focus was on making sure there were sufficient resources patrolling and blacking out the burn 24 hours a day right through to the Monday morning.
“In 2003, we left the burn overnight and at 5am the next morning it escaped – if crews were present they would have been able to contain that burn to a track back then.
“I was not making the same mistake twice.”
NEVER FORECAST
Mr Gleeson said the forecast provided at 6am on the Saturday for the 2015 burn had been 28 degrees, with relative humidity of 30 per cent, winds around 15 to 25km/h and a dew point (moisture in the air) listed as nine or 10.
“Around 4pm Grand Final afternoon, when we could expect these maximum numbers, it was actually 30 degrees, a relative humidity of only 14 per cent, winds as forecast and a dew point of -1,” he said.
“This equates to an extremely dry atmosphere that then also dries the fine fuels out even more.
“These conditions mean that any ember falling in dry fuel would ignite a new fire.
“The crews that were patrolling the edge of the burn caught about four of these but then were overwhelmed by spot fires because it was so dry.
“These conditions were never forecast, between Monday before the burn right through to the Saturday morning, and if they were there would have been two outcomes – one, perhaps the burn would not have gone ahead, or two, there would have been 20 people out there patrolling on the Saturday, not seven.
“In 2003 I spent three weeks talking to every land owner affected and developed a Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan – this time around I was denied the ability to get out and engage with the affected community.
“Three years after this planned burn escape I resigned from the department and moved my family to the Northern Territory so that I could be back full time in fire management.”
Mr Gleeson said planned burning was one of the few cost-effective management tools to maintain fuel hazards at acceptable levels.
“It gives firefighters at DELWP, Parks Victoria and the CFA a fighting chance at suppressing fires,” he said.
“The community should continue to support and encourage land managers to fuel reduce on Crown land to complement works done by private property owners.
“It has to be an all-in approach to manage fuel loads right across the landscape to help reduce the impact of bushfires on communities and the environment.”
THOROUGH INVESTIGATION
Matters relating to the 2015 Lancefield-Cobaw fire were subject to a thorough investigation by independent expert Murray Carter, director of Western Australia’s Office of Bushfire Risk Management.
The investigation made 42 findings and 22 recommendations to the government, including that the department [Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning] improved its risk assessment for planned burns and ensured adequate contingency plans were in place.
At the request of the government, the Inspector-General for Emergency Management provided independent oversight to ensure all recommendations from the Lancefield-Cobaw report were implemented and progress publicly reported.
