'How does the RFS use technology/social media in a

crisis response situation'

Lew Short

Group Manager Community Resilience

78m

1.3m

SUSAN PASCOE:

We're asking the population to become quite

sophisticated in their thinking and not to simply

have a binary approach, you either stay or you

either go but you may stay if it's a regular bushfire,

if such a thing exists and if you are adequately

prepared to defend your home but if, for example,

you have vulnerable family members then you're

far better for any such extreme bushfire day just to

go, and particularly on a code red day.

August 6 ABC Interview with Jane Cowan

Challenges in the operational context

• Highly complex asymmetric environment• Fast run fires V campaign fires• Ignitions – men, women, children, lightning• Microclimates, convective driven fires,

winds

8

In the Event of a Bushfire• Roughly one half of respondents indicated

they would leave. • For many the trigger to leave their home

was being advised by the RFS, SES, Police or other authority.

• 80% of people will wait and see• Dependency on information

Lim

it to

dire

ct a

ttac

k

Par

alle

l att

ack

Indi

rect

att

ack

Def

ensi

ve

Lim

it to

saf

e op

erat

ion

of

helic

opte

rs (

~50

km/h

)

Potential:• Loss of

radio & telco towers

• Loss of situational awareness

Weather included: temperatures up to 45o

winds in excess of 90km/h relative humidity as low as 6% Fire Danger Ratings of up to 100

2001/2002:

ITEM 1993/94 1997/98 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

S44 Declarations including pre-emptive Declarations

33 15 17 27 61 10 20 38 36 7 10 50 0

Number of Local Government Areas involved in S44s

35 20 20 44 81 23 41 67 47 14 14 80 0

Number of bush and grass fires statewide during principal duration of S44s

800 250 454 459 151 58 800 2,871 1,228 1,184 4,104 0

Principal Duration of S44s – No of Days

17 days 16 days 33 days 30 days 151 days 31 days 16 days = 42 days 113 days 38 days 54 days 118 days 0

Area Burnt 800,000 500,000 292,836 754,000 1,465,000 57,600 16,309 92,613 438,218 85,507 32,700 366,159 Unknown

Number of days Total Fire Bans 15 48 38 97 53 24 23 45 13 35 65 5

Number of Aircraft taskings Not known Not known Not known 2,098 365 90 721 1,766 1,119 702 1,344 308

Max# aircraft used in one day Not known Not known Not known 103 35 7 45 74 22 61 74 29

Residential Homes destroyed in bush fires 1 April to 31 March

206 10 109 86 5 1 13 8 2 Nil 24 0

Technology• Line scanning - IR and heat source• Helicopters, eye in the sky – cameras• Lightning strike data• Modis - hotspots• Warnings ESRI based• Google maps• Mobile devices

Current RFS Social Media activity includes:• Several organisational Twitter accounts• A number of RFS individuals using their Twitter

accounts to shore RFS information• An RSS feed for warnings and alerts• Common Operating Picture: a Google Maps

mash-up showing current incidents• Several official and regional Facebook pages

(e.g. Mudgee, Regentville) • Several regional stand-alone RFS webpages

(e.g. Blue Mountains, Killcare) with community blogs, etc.

• Photo and video sharing through RFS specific channels on sites such as Flickr and YouTube

The RFS Social Media

Landscape

.

• 80% of people wait and see• Triggers• Making informed decisions• As near to real time information and

situational awareness

– The Social Media landscape can be monitored and influenced, but not controlled.

– The RFS needs to become part of the conversation.

– Social Media is an important tool to assist in getting the ‘Safety Message’ out to the community.

Command & Control

• RFS is providing RSS feeds of our incidents which a number of applications and web pages are using.

• Issues with incidents not being mapped or assigned an alert level in ICON which is flowing through to our COP on the RFS web page and to external users via RSS feeds.

Remember…

Many emergency management researchers observe that the world has entered the era of ‘mega crisis’ or catastrophic emergencies’ whose force and magnitude defy even the best laid plans and the most robust response systems

Ta muchLew ShortGroup Manager Community Resilience NSW Rural Fire Service8741 5454Lew.short@rfs.nsw.gov.au

Lew Short lewshort14