00:00It's a fairly small burn, but it's fairly complex.
00:14Fighting fire with fire.
00:16As the danger period approaches, firefighters on the northern outskirts of Sydney are conducting
00:21a hazard reduction burn.
00:23It's a three and a half hectare burn, which will offer protection to about 100 homes.
00:28It's becoming harder to get these burns done thanks to climate change.
00:32The season is lengthening for us and also what we're seeing is more extreme fire behaviour.
00:40This map from the CSIRO shows this area already has potential for an incredibly destructive
00:46fire.
00:48And the data, which uses weather, fuel and terrain information, is now being produced
00:53on a national scale.
00:55It has had quite a significant impact already and stands to just be a really firm basis
01:01of which we can revolutionise how risk management is achieved across Australia.
01:08Following a royal commission into the horror 2019-2020 black summer season, a specialist
01:13team at the CSIRO was tasked with producing nationally consistent data.
01:19What we can do as a national science agency is try to build a unified system that simply
01:25builds on the best of what states are being able to do and put our perspective on top
01:29of that as well.
01:30It'll support a federal response during nationally significant fires.
01:41It's also being used to protect telecommunications towers.
01:44I remember you saying the embers can be as small as two millimetres.
01:48The CSIRO team analysed more than 7,000 Optus towers, including this one in Victoria's Yarra
01:54Ranges.
01:55The red dots show areas posing higher risk and work has now been undertaken to reduce
02:00the threat here and at 39 other sites.
02:04We've been able to less the probability of those catastrophic losses by six times.
02:09The CSIRO data also shows if the fire hazard is projected to increase or decrease with
02:15climate change.
02:16The red indicates a higher risk under this climate model, which is the case for this
02:21area in Tasmania where Julian de Blanc lives.
02:28All you can do is take the necessary precautions.
02:30Mr de Blanc has taken several precautions, installing cladding outside, double glazed
02:36windows and ember protective blinds.
02:39The work's been recognised by the Resilient Building Council and it could mean he gets
02:43a discount in his insurance premiums.
02:46If you're an insurer, surely you're going to be wanting to insure properties that are
02:51resilient against fire or against flood or whatever the risk is.
02:58Following debate about the use of hazard reduction burns, the Royal Commission asked the CSIRO
03:03to develop consistent vegetation classifications and called for better communication about
03:09fuel management.
03:11A fire raged through this area of the Grampians in February, but Forest Fire Management Victoria
03:17says large areas were protected by a mosaic-style prescribed burn.
03:22We know from research that different species will inhabit these different sort of structures
03:28of the bush.
03:29With summer upon us, fire services across the country are preparing for the season ahead.
03:35At the same time, the Royal Commission is preparing to hand down its final report.
03:40It'll happen early next year and it's expected to show that 33 recommendations have been
03:45addressed and 20 others are still underway.
03:48The benefit that Royal Commission has really lies within the ability to understand and
03:55pick up those recommendations and honour them and take them forward.
04:00Work on the CSIRO's data is continuing and so the latest maps won't be available for
04:05this fire season.
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