REC098-2152

The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth, through the Council of Australian Governments and the Australasian Fire Authorities Council, initiate an overhaul of the incident management systems used
by bush fire agencies in Australia to better incorporate local knowledge and expertise and better understanding of the needs and circumstances of local rural communities in the management of major fire events.
The Committee also recommends that this overhaul should aim to:
- refine the system to facilitate setting up simple command and control structures, closer to the fire ground, in tune with the ever changing local fire ground conditions and needs of local communities;
- include training of incident management personnel on how to engage and involve local people in planning and management of fires.
- establish national models for community fire planning and provide for the integration of community fire plans into incident management; and
- include national reporting of the success of incident management of fires as a means of auditing the cost effectiveness or incident operations.