Introducing fire-relevant websites - the Current Bushfire Incidents Map

This is the first of a series of posts introducing websites with some relevance to bushfires and/or emergency situations in Southeast Queensland.

The Current Bushfire Incidents Map

This map is on the Queensland Rural Fire Service website at: https://ruralfire.qld.gov.au/map.html

The map distinguishes between "bushfire incidents" which are shown by default on the map when it opens (above), and "current permitted burns" which are shown if the tick box on the lower left of the map is clicked (below).

Both maps can be zoomed, either by using the controls in the top left of the map, which tend to move in fairly large "jumps", or by "double clicking" on the area on the map where you want the centre of your view to be.  Combining the on-map controls with dragging the view area is better for getting to the general area of interest (there frequently isn't space to click between the symbols in the zoomed-out view).  Once in the general area double-clicking changes the degree of zooming in smaller increments.

The blue flame icons indicate that "a fire or other emergency has started in the area however there is no immediate threat" (see the Legend below the map for the meanings of other symbols used). But note that there is a warning at the bottom of the web page that "The symbols represent the general area of the fire, not its current location or spread."

Clicking on one of these symbols provides an overview of the information available.  The difference between the Reported date and the Latest Update date can suggest whether the fire is a large one (longer duration).  The fire location is given, though this has to be treated with some caution.  The location may be the nearest street to the fire, and where there are large properties involved, or a property has access via a long easement off a public road, the fire may be a considerable distance from the address given.

Clicking on the "More information" link opens the QFRS Incident Page for that particular fire in a separate window.

The key information on this page is the "Current Status" field.  "Going" means that firefighting resources are deployed to the fire.  You can find the explanations of other status types in the Legend below the map.

The overview information available for Permitted Burns (represented by document icons) show the Reported and Latest Update dates.

Because the QFRS Incident Pages associated with permitted burns always give the Current Status as "Going" I assume that permitted burns do not appear on the Incident Map until they are notified to FireComm immediately prior to lighting up.  But two things are important to note in relation to permitted burns. The first is that the "Going" status refers to the date of the Latest Update, not the date on which you access the Incident Map.  The second is that not all permitted burns are notified to FireComm, even though this is a condition of permit, so they will not appear on the map, and our experience is that not all permitted burns notified to FireComm appear on the Incident Map.  This seems to be particularly the case in our area with permitted burns in the southern part of the Helidon Hills.

It is also possible to subscribe to an RSS feed of with a list of current incidents from the QFRS which includes GeoRSS data and summary information where available.  There is also a KML Incident feed which opens in Google Earth and displays incident locations.  Information on these feeds is at: https://ruralfire.qld.gov.au/mapfeeds.html.  Both are updated every 30 minutes.