The Victorian Bushfires: Account, Preparedness, and Response

Running head: THE VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES 1
Victorian Bushfires of 28 February 2019 Onwards
Name
Institutional Affiliation

THE VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES 2
THE VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES
Introduction
The Victorian Bushfire started on 28/02/2019 and lasted for almost more than a week
causing great damage to the properties and displacement of people. Victoria State is in Southeast
Australia which remains amongst the three-most fire-susceptible region on the globe. As global
warming makes the country drier and hotter, drought has become increasingly likely, and
bushfires remain anticipated to be more intense, frequent, and dangerous as well as costly.
Bushfires in Australia have increasingly claimed lives and significantly cost the county billions
of dollars in the recent years. Indeed if Australia’s heat-trapping emissions continue to surge at
the present rates, scientist have projected additional severe droughts for the southeast Australia in
the 1st half of the century. This implies that Victoria State remains much probably to encounter
heightened bushfire risks (Handmer & O’Neill, 2016).
Account on Victoria Bushfires: 28/02/2019 Onwards
The Victorian Bushfire encompassed a series of devastating bush fires which swept
through the southeastern state of Victoria. It destroyed multiple properties and compelled
thousands of individuals to flee their respective homes. The blazes stood triggered by strikes of
lightning according to the commissioner Andrew Crisp for Victorian Emergency Management.
Crisp indicated that as of Monday morning, nineteen fires remained burning following the
incident. It was a challenging time for Australians as it remained an extremely busy time for the
Victorian firefighters as well as emergency services crossway the state to put off the fire. The
state emergency management authorities issued a range of warnings in the days leading to the
disaster that gave warnings and urged residents in danger to immediately act to survive. Officials
with Australia’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) called Trevor Owen warned that it was hot, dry

THE VICTORIAN BUSHFIRES 3
and smoke in the air on Sunday and proceeded to show that it was tough and dangerous work,
and gave credit to the firefighters.
The disaster saw over 2000 firefighters being deployed to fight the raging blazes and
more than 1000 individuals had been evacuated by 4/3/2019. By Monday following the start of
the fire on 28/02/2019, the Cardinia Shire government’s website had indicated that one of the
fires-especially in Bunyip State Park-had covered over 11,500 hectares (almost 28,400 acres).
Indeed, much of the park and the regions to its south stayed under the evacuation order as of the
morning of Monday. The blaze was described by Graeme Moore, Cardinia Shire Mayor as
devastating when interviewed 9 News Australia, an affiliate of CNN.
9 News reported that the owner of Jinks Winery, Andrew Clarke, inside the park
indicated that he watched his vineyard burning up on live TV despite having lived and worked
there for more than 40 years which shows the great loss caused to people by Victorian Bushfires.
It caused distress as indicated by Andrew Clark that it remained pretty distressful having his kids
there and observing their reactions to all of it-it stood horrible and really bad news to the family.
Crisp indicated that authorities had some luck in fighting Bunyip fire as they managed to
downgrade it from the emergency warning to watch and act.
Analyzing Elements of Disaster Preparedness and Response
The disaster preparedness and response remains a fundamental role of the Emergency
Management Victoria (EMV), which spearheads the emergency management in Victoria. This is
done by maximizing the ability of the sector of emergency management to work collaboratively
and strengthen the communities’ capacities to plan, respond as well as recover from the
emergencies.

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In the case of Victoria Bushfires, EMV supported the Emergency Management
Commissioner to lead as well as coordinate the emergency preparedness, response as well as
recovery across the emergency management sector in Victoria in collaboration with
communities, agencies, government as well as businesses. EMV remains an integral part of the
wider emergency management sector and shares significant responsibility with array of agencies,
departments, and organizations for making sure the systems of emergency in Victoria remain
sustainable, effective as well as community-oriented.
The EMV appears to be fully prepared to swiftly respond to the bushfire. This case
started by early warnings and advice on what people needed to do and with frequent updates.
Such a watch and act system enabled people to get informed with latest information and what
and where they needed to be in case of the emergency. This demonstrate that EMV and the
Commission are always prepared to inform the people to remain out of any risk that might result
from the bushfire.
In terms of preparedness, Victoria has a working and efficient warning system in place that
provides info and warnings to community via a range of channels. Through the EMV, this
integrated approach to emergency management has seen effective warning system being used in
the case of Victorian Bushfire. The Victorian’s warning system shows high level of preparedness
to deal with bushfires because it is an integrated system that provides information as well as
warnings to the community via an array of channels.
For example, the Vic Bushfire Watch and Act (Shoreham) was effectively used in
warning the residents about the looming bushfire. This watch and act message was issued for the
Shoreham and replaced the advice issued at 1:00 PM by the Country Fire Authority. It was
indicated that a bushfire existed at Punty Lane (Shoreham) which was never under control