Are there others out there like us?

Trying to find out if there are other volunteer smokespotter groups like ours somewhere in the world is a bit like trying to find other life in the universe - you'd expect it might be out there, but it's damn hard to find.

The Google searches I've done have turned up lots of stuff about smokespotter volunteers on towers in the US (apparently a rapidly decreasing group as other forms of fire surveillance take over), and people who report black smoke from vehicle exhausts in cities, but no groups like ours.

There are Volunteer Bushfire Brigade members who live on relatively high blocks at various locations in the Darwin rural area who report smoke over the Bushfires radio network in order to faciliate a rapid response to fires. There's a 2009 report that mentions this group, and I've had an email from Frank Dunstan (the author of that report) which indicates that their activity is continuing.

If you come across anything about a group similar to ours I'm sure the Helidon Hills Smokespotters would be interested to hear about it.

Stolen Smoke Hazard sign

Some idiot stole a Smoke Hazard sign while it was in use on Seventeen Mile Road just south of Ravensbourne by one of the Smokespotter Coordinators, KP.

The wording "Property of Ravensbourne Rural Fire Warden" appears on the front and back of the sign is the sign.

If you see a Smoke Hazard sign with this handwritten text on it, would you mind "confiscating" it and advising KP Neilson on 07 4697 8053 or  0405 559 812.  Or if you don't want to confiscate it, please just let KP know.

Another fire location web page

Through the Bushfire CRC website I've become aware of the Firewatch national bushfire monitoring system run by Landgate.  The aim of Firewatch is to provide timely information about hotspots to emergency service managers across Australia,

Landgate is the statutory authority responsible for Western Australia’s land and property information. It manages the State’s land titles system and provides geospatial information services to the industry, government and the general public.  Landgate does much more than this bland description suggests, and gives the impression of being a very service-oriented organisation with a very broad view of what service to the community means.

The Firewatch site clearly works on top of the GIS and datasets available on the Sentinel Hotspots website run by Geoscience Australia, but is easier to use and seems to allow much quicker access to the area one wants to monitor, with quicker reloads.

From the point of view of coordinating Smokespotter observations Firewatch has one significant advantage - the page shows the Latitude and Longitude of the cursor position. Now if it only allowed plotting of bearings from a given point it would be a very nice Smokespotting tool.  Sentinel can not only do this (giving the bearing, distance and Lat/Long of start and finish points), but also keeps a series of bearing lines on the page until they are cleared.  If only we could have a combined Sentinel, Firewatch, and (a working) Current Bushfire Incidents website it would be a fantastic tool.

There may also be other functions useful to Smokespotters available through a free subscription to the Firewatch site which I will explore in the coming weeks. There's also a "beta" version of the site where new development is being tested.

Here's a screenshot of part of a Firewatch screen to give you an idea of the detail and the range of tools available (unlike Sentinel, the purpose of each tool is shown when the cursor hovers over the tool).  Click on the map to open an enlarged view - the yellow stars in the top right are the satellite records of the fire over toward Esk that was generating so much smoke on the weekend.

Seasonal Bushfire Assessment 2012-2013 released

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has released an assessment of the likely severity of bushfires in the coming fire season.

This map shows areas (brown) where above normal bushfire activity can be expected.

There is a summary of the assessment on a State-by-State basis here, and the full report can be downloaded here.

New Tab for accessing Fire Danger Ratings

As we come further into the fire season it will be increasingly important to keep up to date with the Fire Danger Ratings.

I've added a Fire Danger Rating Tab to the bar at the top of the home page.  The system of accessing current Fire Danger Ratings is far from satisfactory, and takes too much time and effort.  The public should be able to get this information on the web with just one or two mouse clicks.

Let me know how you go with using the Fire Danger Rating Tab to access the existing system and what difficulties you encounter.

We need help to make the system more effective

In general it is very useful to the Smokespotter Coordinators if we receive notice when you are about to light-up a permitted burn.

Having this information can save a lot of time for us and other Smokespotters that is spent in getting an accurate location on a smoke sighting, only to find that it is a permitted burn.

If everything worked as it should, when you notify FireComm (on the 1 800 number on your fire permit) it would go onto their database as a vegetation fire, and this information would automatically be transferred to the Rural Fire Service's Current Bushfire Incidents web page.

The Coordinators could then confidently access that page and know that they are seeing all the recently notified permitted burns.

In reality, it appears that many or perhaps most of the permitted burns notified to FireComm are not appearing on that web page.   We know this because many of you have been letting us know when you are about to light-up, but we don't see it there.

Now we have made an arrangement with the Rural Fire Service's IT section that as soon as we know a permitted burn has been reported to FireComm but is not appearing on the Current Bushfire Incidents page we should tell them and they will endeavour to find the weak point in the data transfer process.

You can help us by letting us know when you are going to light-up, and confirming that you have notified FireComm.

Update 18 Sept 2012

Fire in the Lockyer NP West of Seventeen Mile Road

This fire is now under control as of 11.30am today.  A QPWS fire crew is still on site mopping up and there is still a smouldering tree on Seventeen Mile Road.

Fire in the Spring Creek Area

Three bearings on smoke the Spring Creek area between 10.00am and 11.00am this morning indicate that it was probably on or adjacent to the Spring Creek Prison land.

Update pm Sunday 16 Sept

There will be a permitted burn lighting up this afternoon (Sunday 16 Sept) at the intersection of Wallers Road and Seventeen Mile Road.

The fire in the Lockyer National Park west of Seventeen Mile Road that was reported yesterday is still burning and earlier today was burning along the edge of Seventeen Mile Road further south than the position reported yesterday.

No need to report smoke from these locations, but if you have any doubts as to whether the smoke you are seeing is from those fires, please contact one of the Smokespotter Coordinators.

Fire in Lockyer National Park West of Seventeen Mile Road

A fire has been burning in the Lockyer National Park, west of Seventeen Mile Road, about two kilometres down Seventeen Mile Road from its intersection with Wallers Road and some distanc off Seventeen Mile Road since midday on Saturday 15 September.

The location (shown on the map below by the red band) is indicative only and should not be relied on.  If you have a serious concern that you might be threatened by this fire in the short term you should call 000 FireComm.  But please do not use this service for general information about the fire.

Smoke Sightings in Week to 11 Sept

The fire season is hotting up, if you'll forgive the pun.

Three reports of "unknown" smoke, and several notifications of intention to light up a permitted burn (the latter were reported on this blog and to smoke spotters by email).

8 Sept
GS spotted smoke at 8.41am on bearing 41 true.  Fire went out by 9.12am.  No further action.

9 Sept
GC spotted large column of smoke from Warrego Highway (behind the southernmost ridge of the Helidon Hills), intermittently dying down.
KP unable to see from her location.
GS reported no smoke from HH area.
Smoke dissipated.  No further action.

11 Sept.
1.10pm HN spotted smoke on bearing 62 true, smoke over a wide front but concentrated at that bearing.
1.20pm  KP reported bearing of 113 true.
These bearings put the fire in bushland to east of Gatton Esk Road and between Balaam Hill Road and Quarry Road.
Rural Fire site (see the Rural Fire Locations tab above) has a report of a fire in Wotan/Woton Road at Churchable, within about 2km of the intersection of our bearings - probably the same fire.  Not bad for one bearing over a 17km distance and the other over 12km, in bad smoke haze conditions, and enough to get the fire trucks to the fire quickly if this had been required.
No further action.

Permitted Burns - 17 Mile Road - Mt Perseverance Area

I've just been informed that there will be permitted burns on the Ergon properties either side of Seventeen Mile Road (south of the Ravensbourne jump-up) in the Mt Perseverance  area starting this afternoon - Monday 10 September and continuing, conditions permitting, until Thursday 13 September.

KP and James will be doing some small permitted burns on their place on Seventeen Mile Road, north of the jump-up, between now and Sunday 16 September.


Both of these burns will be visible over a wide area.

No need to report fires from that locality - but if you have any doubt whether smoke is coming from those burns, please report it to me or KP (contact details in the Contact Coordinators tab above) so it can be checked.

This web site will continue to be under development for some time, but useful information is being posted here as it comes to hand.  Please don't use the comments section on the web site to advise us of smoke sightings, as we don't monitor the web site on a regular basis.  But please do contact me with any suggestions for improvements to the site.

Spring SEQ Fire and Biodiversity Forum

The next SEQ Fire and Biodiversity Consortium Forum will be on Wednesday 14 November.  More information on location and subjects to be addressed will be posted here as we receive it.

Research on Environmental Impacs of Fire in Bushland

The Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre has released a new "Fire Note" on Environmental Impacts of Presecribed and Wildfire - Emissions Management".  It can be downloaded at http://www.bushfirecrc.com/projects/32/fire-landscape.

For those with their firefighting water stored in poly tanks it might be interesting to have a look at their Fire Note 69.  The original research report in this, which I can no longer find on their web site, contained even stronger warnings on poly tanks.

Permitted Burns Today in Vinegar Hill Area

I've just been advised that two permitted burns will light up this afternoon in the Vinegar Hill area.

One will be about 2km from our place, on Outlook Crescent, which runs off Beech Road / Forestry Road.  Probably a pretty small fire with little smoke.

The other will be in the same place as yesterday's burn (toward the end of Forestry Road) and will probably create a considerable amount of smoke.

If you are in any doubt as to whether the smoke you are seeing is from one of these fires, please contact a Smokespotter Coordinator (see details in the Contact a Coordinator tab above).

Statistics for August

August was a busy month with eight sightings of smoke reported by Helidon Hills Smokespotters.

Six of these were accurately located, of which three turned out to be outside the Helidon Hills area.

One fire could not be accurately located because the sighting occurred just as it was getting dark and no further observations could be made.  This was likely to have been a permitted burn.

The location of the other was originally mis-identified by a Coordinator (GC).  On the basis of only one bearing and a good view of the smoke from another point (ten kilometres from the fire) an estimated location was reported.  This violated our usual standard of requiring at least two bearings to give a reasonable location, but was done because: (a) the fire was in an area where there have been several arson incidents over the last five years; and (b) the fire was obviously being lit up when it was first observed - a line of smoke columns of decreasing height toward the most recent ignition point.  QPWS and Grantham RFS mobilised quickly, the latter with the assistance of the Helidon Police, while the Smokespotters continued to try to get bearings on the smoke.  The fire was identified by QPWS and the RFS as being a permitted burn three kilometres away from the original estimated location, just as a Smokespotter reported a good bearing which confirmed this location.  This fire was not on the Firecomm web site of reported lighting of permitted burns (though the landowner said he had reported his intention to light up) and the light-up had not been advised to the Smokespotters.

Another fire off Goldmine Road was found by QPWS staff using a helicopter to do a controlled burn in the White Mountain area.  This fire was clearly pretty clearly the result of arson, as it was in the National Park away from roads.

During the month the Smokespotter Coordinators were advised of intention to light up four permitted/controlled burns in the Helidon Hills.  This potentially saved a considerable amount of time for the Coordinators and other Smokespotters as well as the RFS.  Our thanks to those who provided this advice.

Permitted Burn Lighting Up - Forestry Road

There will be a permitted burn in the Vinegar Hill area near the end of Forestry Road today, Monday 3 September.

No need to report smoke in that area, but if you have any doubt as to where the smoke is coming from, please phone it through to one of the Coordinators - click on the "Contact a Coordinator" tab above for phone numbers.

Smoke between Seventeen Mile Road & Gatton Esk Road

Smoke was sighted on a bearing of 115-120 deg true from the intersection of Seventeen Mile Road and Wallers Road at 1715h.  Column of smoke rising and slightly moved by wind.

This bearing crosses the National Park from there to Logan's Road near the Spring Creek Jail.

Three other Smokespotters were unable to see the smoke some ten minutes later, and the original spotter could only see a dissipating haze of smoke.

Resolved to monitor that area on Monday 3 Sept in case it was an attempt at arson that might be repeated.

Ergon properties burning suspended

We have been advised by Public Forest Services Queensland that the permitted burns that they were conducting on the Ergon properties along Seventeen Mile Road below the Ravensbourne jump-up have been suspended from yesterday (31 August) for the time being.

Any smoke seen in the Mt Perseverance area after today should be reported to the Smoke Spotter Coordinators.