Fires in national capital will change bushfire planning

The disastrous January, 2003 bushfires in Canberra, along with conflagrations in northern Victoria and in northern NSW, are likely to bring big changes across a lot of construction and infrastructure tenders, as CSIRO experts and Governments digest the lessons of the wildfire destruction.

One result could be more undergrounding of electricity supplies, both high voltage distribution lines and the standard 240 volt retail household supply wires. As the Canberra bushfires roared across open fields and into the lightly built up bush suburbs of Canberra's outer areas, they took out around 500 power poles, and with them the local power grid.

Poles treated with creosote, for protection against insect attack, burned so fiercely nobody could get close enough to get a water hose or fire extinguisher on them. Poles treated with the alternative of copper arsenate, with its characteristic green tinge, burned with toxic fumes which again kept firefighters away. As a result, householders lost access to television and radio emergency information, leaving the police to drive down suburban streets with falling trees, shouting out evacuation instructions.

Water pumps lost operating power, lowering water pressures and imperilling firefighting, the sewerage plant pumps went down, traffic lights were blacked out, contributing to accidents as stressed motorists spilled out onto arterials covered in smoke haze, tree debris and fireballs.

Emergency workers from NSW power utilities poured down to Canberra to help the local ACTEW instrumentality reconstitute the lost above-ground pole structure. But in the longer term, the stark demonstration of vulnerability could tilt the balance in favour of much more extensive undergrounding of cable, in existing bushfire-prone areas as well as in new developments.

CSIRO specialists report that the cable only needs to be buried a metre underground to be fully protected by earth thermal insulation from bushfire effects. In NSW, electricity distributor TransGrid already has a policy of undergrounding its high voltage lines for precisely this reason, to ensure it protects the main grid supply backbone, whatever happens to individual householders.

If power lines go underground, then by law telecommunication cable must follow, within six months. This would affect developers, real estate agents, digging and excavation contractors, plumbers and electricians, consulting engineers, utility executives, telecommunications companies with cable (Telstra, Optus, AAPT) as distinct from those who are only resellers, street lighting equipment suppliers, surveyors, effectively most of the building, construction and civil engineering sector.

Then there is the bushfire protection of houses. Justin Leonard, project leader, Building in Bushfire Research, CSIRO, joined other CSIRO researchers in intensive on-the-ground practical research as the sheets of flames and all-enveloping fireclouds of embers turned the Canberra skies black. Add in the fact that their own homes were on the line, and you have some researchers really involved in their subject.

"Houses were lost through ember attack, none from direct flame in the Duffy area, even in the front row," said Mr Leonard. "There is potential for house to house ignition, and more embers coming off in windy conditions."

Just one home inadequately protected can burst into flames as the firestorm and fireballs pass over, igniting better-protected neighbouring houses which would otherwise have survived. Bushfire protection has to be one in, all in.

Insurance companies could be insisting on sarking of roofs (aluminium insulation sheets under tiles) to block ember ingress from above, metal fire screens on sub-floor ventilation to stop embers getting in beneath a house and igniting the floorboards, metal fly screen covers on windows to cut the heat load which might otherwise shatter window glass. This changes the business scene for building materials suppliers, project developers, large and small housebuilders, tradesmen and handymen, right around Australia.

Recent tenders monitored by TenderSearch underline the likely flow of fire-related contracts over the coming year. Bovis Lend Lease in January, 2003 invited contractors to register interest in clearing groups of fire damaged housing sites in the ACT. ACT Forest invited offers for salvage and rehabilitation of up to 11,000 hectares of burnt out pinus radiata plantations.

Canberra's Department of Education, Youth and Family Services in February, 2003 was receiving expressions of interest for inspection, maintenance and repairs of fire protection systems in ACT Government schools.

In NSW, the City of Blue Mountains had a February, 2003 tender for construction of a rural fire brigade station in the Megalong Valley, west of Sydney, while the Country Fire Authority in Victoria was seeking information technology software for fire equipment maintenance. Adelaide City Council is interested in fire preventive maintenance of essential safety features of its property portfolio.

One particular issue is the future of the historic Mt Stromlo Observatory, which lost five telescopes, the heritage-listed administration building, workshops and seven houses. Initial reaction is to rebuild it, though the site is surrounded by flammable pine forest and affected optically by the encroaching light haze of expanding Canberra suburbs.