Bushfire CRC Reseach Taskforce moves to next phase

The Bushfire CRC multi-agency research taskforce has completed an intensive five weeks of gathering information about the fires of February 2009 in Victoria.

After eight tours with staff from six Bushfire CRC partner agencies and eight research and service organisations totalling up to 1800 person days in the field, the main focus now is on data consolidation and analysis and finally, report writing. More than 600 interviews have been conducted and researchers have taken more than 21,000 photographs.

There may be some opportunities to collect more data at strategic locations to support analysis that integrates all the research streams – fire behaviour, human behaviour and community safety, and, building and planning issues.

The final tour last week was able to visit areas previously not assessed by the teams including Marysville, Toolangi, Humevale and Narbethong.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Bushfire CRC, Gary Morgan, has written to all agencies involved in the Taskforce to thank them for their participation and to invite them to continue to provide their support into the next phase.

Bushfire CRC has released a brief update on the work of its multi-agency research taskforce over the last two weeks.

This newsletter is also available with more information and photos at: http://www.bushfirecrc.com/news/news2.html