The Victorian Bushfires: A Review of Disaster Planning and Response

This report provides an executive summary and analysis of the 2009 Victorian bushfires, focusing on the effectiveness of the disaster planning and surveillance strategies implemented following the Royal Commission's recommendations. The report examines the context of the disaster, including the extreme weather conditions and the coordinated emergency response. It assesses whether the recommendations were effectively put into place and whether the implemented strategies were able to mitigate the loss of life, property damage, and community trauma. The conclusion suggests that, despite some efforts, further operative strategies are needed to manage future incidents effectively. The report references key sources to support the analysis and findings.

Running head: SURVEILLANCE AND DISASTER PLANNING 1
Surveillance and Disaster Planning
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

SURVEILLANCE AND DISASTER PLANNING 2
Executive summary
On 7the February, 2009, a bushfire disaster occurred in Australia, Victoria State resulting into
a great loss of property and lives. The Victorian bushfires royal commission gave various
recommendation on how the bushfires can be managed, in terms of prevention and control.
This review seeks to determine whether the recommendation were implemented or not. The
research applies a comparative analysis based on the reactions and actions of various
stakeholders in relation to managing the tragedy. From the findings, the implementation of
the recommendation seemed no to be effective and needs further operative strategies to help
manage future incidences.

SURVEILLANCE AND DISASTER PLANNING 3
Table of Contents
Executive summary....................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................5
Discussion: The 2009 Victorian bushfire...................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

SURVEILLANCE AND DISASTER PLANNING 4
Introduction
The 2009 Victorian bushfires occurred on 7th, February, 2009 in Victoria State,
Australia; resulting to several loses in the region. Property was destroyed as well as the death
toll rose high. This review, thus; determines on whether the recommendations by the
commission was implemented in averting the incidents in the future.
Discussion: The 2009 Victorian bushfire
Majorly, the commission was concerned with obviating the risk of narrowing the
vision of the policymakers. It gave various recommendation on actions which should be taken
by the state, in the event of a similar outbreak. The recommendation are sixty-seven in total
and touches on various sectors. In its terms of reference, which was issued on February 16th,
2009 (Whittaker, Haynes, Handmer & McLennan, 2013), the queen of Australia keenly noted
that after encountering several bushfires since the twentieth century, a lot of measures have
been taken, leading to the development of a coordinated state-wide approach to planning as
well as giving a response to the bushfires. For instance, in February 2009, the weather was
high in terms of the temperature, following a long spell of drought. Further, a heat wave had
been experienced in January 2009.
The kind of response was that: more than 10, 000 personnel were involved in
community recovery with coordinated emergency response, and by extension, over 4000 fire
service staff as well as volunteers, responded promptly to combat the fire (Cruz et al., 2012).
All the measures taken were particularly taken to avert the spread of fire as well as protecting
the life of humans and the public property. In spite of the efforts which were placed forward
by the state, it is in no doubt that there was loss of life, extreme loss of property, as well as
major community displacement and trauma. In my view, it seems that some of the
recommendations by the commission were put into place, but not in an effective manner.

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Conclusion
The report by the government authority of Australia details some of the
recommendation from the commission on ways of combating fire outbreaks. According to the
response taken over by the state in the 2009 Victorian bushfires, the recommendation were
effected, but somehow some fatalities were realized. This sufficiently brings a conclusion that
despite the implementation of the recommendation, much still need to be done on effective
strategies to manage future incidents.

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References
Cruz, M. G., Sullivan, A. L., Gould, J. S., Sims, N. C., Bannister, A. J., Hollis, J. J., &
Hurley, R. J. (2012). Anatomy of a catastrophic wildfire: the Black Saturday Kilmore
East fire in Victoria, Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 284, 269-285.
Whittaker, J., Haynes, K., Handmer, J., & McLennan, J. (2013). Community safety during
the 2009 Australian ‘Black Saturday’bushfires: an analysis of household preparedness
and response. International journal of wildland fire, 22(6), 841-849.