Countries, land management agencies and communities have to be prepared to respond effectively to inevitable unwanted fires. Strategies include:

• Early warning and predictive systems, i.e. fire danger ratings;
  
• Fire detection and response processes and infrastructure, e.g., wildfire response planning, fire caches, and aerial/satellite/land observation detection systems;
  
• Communication systems and multi-lateral/multi-agency cooperative agreements with unified command and control structures; and
  
• Competent and trained personnel at all levels, from professional fire managers and firefighters to volunteer community fire brigades.

A wide range of technological resources are available to assist with preparedness, response planning and fire suppression operations. Too often, however, governments and their publics simply react to large fire events which are handled as emergencies to protect people and resources from a disaster in progress. The media reinforces these perceptions and reactions. Thus, responses are “event-driven”. Huge sums of money are spent on suppression and recovery efforts. In the immediate aftermath of the event, more money frequently goes to purchase sophisticated and expensive suppression and detection equipment. During intervals without significant media-driven events, interest wanes and resources dwindle. The process then repeats itself.

Although there is a place for sophisticated equipment in fire detection and suppression, a more integrated approach to preparing for and managing fires regards fires not just as events, but as regimes (Gill et al. 2002). A “regime approach” looks at current conditions and desired outcomes as the result of a series of events that have already occurred and will likely reoccur over time. Rather than responding to events as emergencies, a regime approach looks at the cumulative effect of prior actions, existing factors, and changing environments such that mitigating programs are continuously in progress to reduce the intensity and/or impacts of individual events. Examples of mitigating programs include ecosystem maintenance burning, fuel reduction activities, and community-based fire management programs that encompass and tailor prevention, suppression and fire use activities to local conditions and needs.

References

• Gill, A.M., R.A. Bradstock and J.E. Williams. 2002. Fire regimes and biodiversity: legacy and vision.  In: R.A. Bradstock, J.E. Williams, M.A. Gill (eds.). Flammable Australia: The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge University Press, UK.