Fire and Other Emergencies

Alpine National Park Fire 1998 - Photographs

Back to bushfire photo gallery

These photos may be reproduced with acknowledgment of DSE as the source.

Click on an image below for a high resolution version.

Licola Incident Management Centre for Caledonia fire.

Erickson aircrane filling its 9000 litre tank from Lake Tarli Karng.

Licola Base Camp.

Erickson S64 Aircrane at Licola Helibase.

Bell 205, Navy Sea King and Erickson Aircrane at Licola Helibase.

Dromader fixed wing firebomber loading with fire retardant at Snowy Range airstrip.

Bell 205 medium helicopter "hot" refuelling at Snowy Range Airstrip.

Two Dromader fixed wing firebombers waiting to be loaded at Snowy Range airstrip.

A special foam is added to water for firefighting. Foam sticks to trees and prevents the spread of fire across the control lines or mineral earth tracks.

Teamwork: a firefighting crew work together to move a tree which has fallen across the fire control line. Logs need to be removed off access tracks as they block firefighters access and can increase the fire hazard.

Firefighters clear a mineral earth control line ahead of the fire. This involves removing one metre of vegetation to bare earth using specialized hand tools called rakehoes ahead of the fire front.

Burning bark and embers carried ahead of the main fire by the wind creates spot fires in inaccessible areas, sometimes to distances several kilometres away.

Where flame heights are low, firefighters can establish mineral earth control lines close to the fire to contain its spread.

Mixing retardant: over twenty tonnes of fire retardant have been used each day by firebombers at the Alpine fire. Retardant is mixed with water and is designed to retard vegetation combustions.

A bare earth control line has contained the spread of fire. By reducing the vegetation ahead of the fire, when the fire reaches the control line it slows down as there is nothing to keep it burning.

A backing fire: flames are less intense when burning down the slope or into the wind.

Thick bush, steep slopes and rugged countryside make firefighting difficult to control in the Alpine fire.

After a fire has passed through an area, it is common for trees to fall as their bases are burnt. Fallen trees present a constant hazard to firefighters and the public. Logs need to be removed off access tracks as they block firefighters access and can increase the hazard.

Mopping up: once a fire has been declared "under control" there is ongoing work such as extinguishing smouldering logs, breaking up stumps and ongoing extinguishing of smouldering material before it is declared "safe". This may take several weeks.

Safety in numbers: firefighters work in teams of four or more to establish control lines. These are mineral earth tracks used to limit the spread of fire.