2008 National Rural Fire Details 20.08.08

Canterbury Rural Fire Exercise 20.08.08

Wildfires put heat on embattled state's finances 14.08.08

US Contingent News
Newsletter #17 [260B] 15.08.08 on the way home
Newsletter #16 [1304B] 12.08.08
Comment on chopper crash at Buckhorn Fire, Iron Complex
Newsletter #15 [145kB] 10.08.08

Chairman's Report to FRFANZ AGM 10.08.08

2008 FRFANZ/IFE Conference

Our thanks to to the organising committee and sponsors for the superb job they did in hosting the joint 2008 FRFANZ/IFE annual conference in Palmerston North. I know that all attendees came away better informed with knowledge and understanding that they could apply to fire protection in their own areas. It was a pity that the helicopter demonstration on the field trip had to be in such a demanding location (yeah right!). 

Software Tools
Scion have released software containing tools to calculate fire behaviour of NZ fuels. These are available for free-of-charge download at www.scionresearch.com/fire. For those that prefer to use lookup tables, there is a manual for predicting fire behaviour at a cost of $45 plus postage. Order from publications@scion research.com. One complimentary copy will be provided to each RFA.

US Contingent News
10 August - Arrived here at Junction City the ICP location of the Iron Complex (of fires) late this afternoon.  Not too sure yet where Junction City got the “City” bit from.  The entire town consists of a single general store and a Community Hall, not much else.

9  August - The Kiwi Contingent plus Carlo and Ben have just received orders to relocate to the Iron Fire up in the Shasta-Trinity National Park .  We will de-mob from here at Rich tonight and get an early start tomorrow morning.  It is about a 4 hour drive up to Iron.

6  August - We had a KTVN Chanel 2 news crew call by yesterday, they were interested in the Aussies/Kiwi presence at the Rich Fire.  With the assistance of the Information Unit, (and Trevor Bullock as our tour guide and minder), I took KTVN up the file line to visit Division Bravo (incl Carlo, Matt and Trevor T).  The 4 hours of so that this all took and endless filming only results in a few seconds of video news but it is well worth the effort.  The Information team here at Rich were well pleased with the outcome. If you would like to see the news item, use your browser and go to www.ktvn.com,

Newsletter #14 [299kB] 7.08.08
Newsletter #13 [393kB] 4.08.08
Newsletter #11 [506kB] 1.08.08

Southern Presentation of FRFANZ Gold Stars 29.07.08

Firefighting chemicals 29.07.08
RFA's are required to have Safety Data Sheets on hand at each depot. NZ suppliers have yet to provide these. The above provides a link to US SDS's that will do in the interim.