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14 March 2025
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Featured FRI Magazine article: Building resilience against wildfires in rural areas by Malcolm Procter
Emergencies often strike without warning and can cause major damage and financial loss
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Bethlehem 2010
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Harrismith 2007
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Kroonstad 2010
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol_3_no_4.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Building resilience against wildfires in rural areas written by Malcolm Procter (FRI Vol 3 no 4). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Building resilience against wildfires in rural areas
By Malcolm Procter
Climate change continues to challenge both the nation and affect food security. Fire seasons come later and stay longer each year, fires burn with more intensity. They are more damaging and dangerous to our fire fighters, the public and people’s properties. When appropriate, management of wildfires for resource benefits is one component of fire management that can help us improve the condition of the land where, ultimately, we will be better able to control those unwanted fires when they happen.
Emergencies often strike without warning and can cause major damage and financial loss. Farmers are strongly advised to develop emergency preparedness plans before an emergency occurs on the farm. First response to an emergency is the responsibility of an individual. Help should be sought once farm or resources or ability has been overwhelmed. Having a contingency plan will assist in formulating a preparedness plan that is specific to your farm operation.
As disasters undermine both socio-economic development and environmental management efforts, there is a compelling need to explore how a lack of resilience changes hazard and vulnerability patterns. The degree to which farms can absorb impacts, increase overall resilience and provide effective and economical solutions to reduce disaster risks is therefore jeopardised. Furthermore, societies’ traditional coping strategies are challenged.
While it may not be possible to prevent wildfires completely, wildfires resilience can be improved through good veld management. This should focus on reducing the likelihood of wildfires occurring, reducing the severity of damage and impacts on people and the environment if they do occur and assisting with fire suppression activities.
Resilience is the capacity of an individual or a community to recover from an adverse event, such as a wildfire. Resilience is not a static notion, being resilient now, doesn’t mean you will be resilient forever and the opposite is also true. If you didn’t cope well this time, it may help to improve you resilience and you may cope better in the future. Instead it depends on what the event is, when it occurs, what other events have occurred, the experience of the person or the community or individuals in the community.
Resilience is a moving target. People and communities are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, depending on the circumstance and this changes over time and what makes people more or less resilient are varied and broad reaching. Resilience can also decrease rapidly eg a farmer may be coping well with the drought, having stored several years of feed, however, if all this feed is burnt in a wildfire the farmers ability to cope decreases almost overnight.
Three factors have been found to be important to individual resilience:
In other words, the individual’s sense of social connectedness; such connectedness has been shown to be associated with community and social support network involvement during times of disaster etc. This has a community-level equivalent in the notion of social capital.
In summary, individual response to an extreme event such as a wildfire is important to community resilience because communities are made up of individuals and the groups to which they belong, and are therefore relevant to the way a community responds.
Psychological research on disasters also provides a useful model for thinking about resilience as well as proven measures for assessing individual resilience in advance of and after an event.
Resilience: It’s about what we can do before the fire starts that increases our resilience.
With such a high wildfire incident rate resulting from the actions of people, community education in South Africa is particularly important. Education takes on a number of forms and is generally designed to provide people with a better understanding of the risks they face from Veld fires and the measures the community can take to minimize these risks.
Inadequate clearance around structures has been repeatedly identified as a major factor in the destruction of homes in wildfires. Defensible space is an area around a structure where vegetation is treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of wildfires toward the structure. The reduced volume of fuel results in a reduction in fire intensity, allowing fire fighters to remain with the structure during a wildfire. Inadequate protection or fire proofing of homesteads is the main reason for houses being destroyed during wildfires. One method is to clear grass within 10 metres of a structure. Irrigated ornamental plants are allowed within the 10-metre zone, trimming, pruning, mowing and selective removal of non-irrigated shrubs in the area between 10 and 30 metres from the structure, which is called the fuel modification zone.
Agriculture practices such as slash and burn and/or shifting agriculture by local communities have long been implicated as one of the main cause of wildfires. However, to be considered is that communities are also part of the solution as they often use fire positively to manage the landscape.
Mosaic burning under prescribed conditions creates a pattern of fuel loads of differing ages that reduce the possibility of a fire spreading. However, prescribed burning is just one tool in the toolbox. An irrigation system on both the edge of the property and on the roof of the structure can also help prevent these structures from being destroyed during a wildfire. Unless piping is adequately below the ground, it should consist of metal piping. The water supply and pump for this system should also be independent.
One major challenge faced by landowners in the hours after wildfire has burnt across their land, is how to feed livestock. Establishment of fodder banks on each farm may not help an individual landowner, however, it will mean that locally sourced fodder is available in the area and can be accessed easily. Too often we hear of donated fodder that has been transported over long distances at great cost, only to discover that once opened it is rotten. The wheels of Government turn slowly and in the event of a disaster having been declared and the possibility of funding being made available, this doesn’t solve the problem in the short term. Harvesting grass from lesser used road reserves has a duel beneficial effect; it lowers the fuel load and whilst possibly not the best quality, does provides emergency fodder. Strategically placed feeding areas on farms provide safe refuges for cattle in the event of a fire.
Protecting your farm resources from wildfires
Livestock producers
Concrete or metal buildings located away from fire paths provide a more fire safe livestock shelter option.
Owners should have an evacuation plan for livestock if threatened by fire. If your animals cannot be moved onto a safe area on your property, make and confirm transportation and feeding arrangements in advance.
The risk to farm animals can be reduced by preparing and maintaining fuel-reduced areas onto which stock can be moved and held during a fire. Use a ploughed or heavily grazed field with a minimum of grass or stubble. If possible, this field should be shaded and located well away from fire paths and to the leeward side of your property.
As a last resort, if you are unable to move livestock into a safer area, cut fences, turning the animals loose to take their chances with the fire as long as there is no danger to people or vehicular traffic.
Animal mortality is a regular occurrence on livestock operations; however, in the event of mass mortality, farmers and ranchers need to be prepared to manage large volumes of animal carcasses rapidly. The formulation of a mass mortality contingency plan is an essential step to timely and effective management of a potentially ‘messy’ situation.
Feed crops
An independent irrigation system with its own water supply will provide protection to structures and fodder banks.
Hay stacks, hay sheds and silos should be surrounded with a bare area, at least five metres wide, with another 20-metre wide fuel-reduced strip around this.
Do not attempt to burn off around these areas. Graze, mow or slash grass to desired height. Adequately dry hay before it is baled and stored to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion. Store hay away from roads and fences. Hay and straw are fine fuels and vulnerable to ember ignitions. Grazing livestock can be used to reduce flammable grass around buildings, fence lines and haystacks.
In case of fire
Having a comprehensive contingency plan may be useful should the question of due diligence arise as a result of an emergency situation. It is also critical that insurance policies be obtained and kept up to date to ensure eligibility for relevant emergency financial assistance.
The information in your farm contingency plan will help to ensure the safety of family members, employees and emergency responders, minimise financial loss, property damage and protect the environment. Your emergency response plan should include an overview of your property, identifying the location of storage areas, buildings, emergency equipment, utilities, wells and surface water. It should also include information on hazardous and flammable substances stored on the farm, manure handling information for livestock operations and emergency contact telephone numbers.
Don’t place yourself, your family or employees at risk; stay out of burning buildings. Eliminate the source of the fire, if possible. Assess extent of fire. Notify attending landowners of location, type and extent of the fire. Attempt to contain or eliminate the fire provided you can do this safely.
Protection of assets during periods of extreme fire risk can only be achieved if wildfire ignitions are attacked quickly and with maximum available resources. Even where pre-fire mitigation actions such as fuel reduction burning have been carried out, weather conditions on days of extreme fire danger will assist a small fire to build rapidly to an uncontrollable state. Previous research done in other countries clearly shows that the initial attack is critical to controlling and extinguishing a wildfires and that use of aircraft in this initial attack phase significantly increases the chances of successful result. Aircraft are a relatively expensive resource available to fire managers and we believe there is often a reluctance to use aircraft in the first instance in an attempt to save money. This is a false economy.
Aircraft cannot extinguish a bushfire without the support of ground crews. While an aircraft can drop water, retardant or chemically-enhanced water (using additives such as surfactants or water enhancing gels), these can only reduce the fire behaviour temporarily; unless directly attacked by supporting ground crews during this period and the fire will eventually burn through, around or over the drop, particularly if the fire is spotting heavily. Aircraft cannot mop-up burning and smouldering fuels, which are a primary source of reignition. If necessary, evacuate to agreed safe meeting place or local emergency services shelter.
Wildfires can cause more than visible damage to livestock
Analysing injuries to livestock following a wildfire is important, secondary problems can lead to infections and further problems.
• Livestock must be sought and given adequate nutrition; if necessary a veterinarian must be consulted
• If they can be moved to unburnt ground it is best for them.
• It is important to get livestock to high quality forage with a protein and mineral supplement and good water thereafter rotate their feeding area to prevent the build-up of pathogens.
• If livestock is unable to get adequate nutrition and water immediately, their health can deteriorate rapidly.
• Other livestock should be evaluated for possible health disorders and treatment or determining if the animal can be salvaged or if for humane reasons should be slaughtered or euthanised.
Can you determine the cause of the fire?
Post fire assessment: Review actions taken to contain, minimise or prevent the fire. There are four basic directions the results of the investigation can take:
1. Administrative action to recover costs for suppression and/or property loss.
2. Court proceedings under civil law to recover costs for suppression, and/or property loss.
3. Court proceedings for criminal violations of, national or local by-laws or regulations.
4. To assist in policy development, implementation of fire prevention programs and presuppression planning
Were there signs present before the incident? How could this be prevented? How did the clean-up progress? What has to be changed on your contingency plan?
Adaptive strategies are the most important when we look at developing the long term resilience of a community. They ensure that we can learn from an event, adapt to our changing environment and plan for the future.
Clean-up site
Follow spill reporting contingency plans in the event that a spill occurred as a result of the fire. Follow mass mortality contingency plan if large numbers of livestock or poultry died as a result of the fire. On farm disposal may be preferred for some; however site conditions ie high water tables, porous soils or heavy rainfall, may restrict the ability of a farm site to be used for disposal. The cause of the mass mortality will initially direct the disposal options.
Off-site disposal may be a more expensive option with less time and management requirements for the farm/ranch operation. Local government disposal sites should be considered when capacity to deal with mortalities on farm is overwhelmed. Local and regional off-site disposal is not available in all areas of the province.
Recovering from a fire may take a long time and many things will be new to landowners. If not insured, recovery from a loss will likely be dependent on their own resources and coping strategies that can be called upon. If landowners are insured, their insurance will be an important component in recovering from their loss.
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: Building resilience against wildfires in rural areas written by Malcolm Procter (FRI Vol 3 no 4). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
Building resilience against wildfires in rural areas
By Malcolm Procter
Climate change continues to challenge both the nation and affect food security. Fire seasons come later and stay longer each year, fires burn with more intensity. They are more damaging and dangerous to our fire fighters, the public and people’s properties. When appropriate, management of wildfires for resource benefits is one component of fire management that can help us improve the condition of the land where, ultimately, we will be better able to control those unwanted fires when they happen.
Emergencies often strike without warning and can cause major damage and financial loss. Farmers are strongly advised to develop emergency preparedness plans before an emergency occurs on the farm. First response to an emergency is the responsibility of an individual. Help should be sought once farm or resources or ability has been overwhelmed. Having a contingency plan will assist in formulating a preparedness plan that is specific to your farm operation.
As disasters undermine both socio-economic development and environmental management efforts, there is a compelling need to explore how a lack of resilience changes hazard and vulnerability patterns. The degree to which farms can absorb impacts, increase overall resilience and provide effective and economical solutions to reduce disaster risks is therefore jeopardised. Furthermore, societies’ traditional coping strategies are challenged.
While it may not be possible to prevent wildfires completely, wildfires resilience can be improved through good veld management. This should focus on reducing the likelihood of wildfires occurring, reducing the severity of damage and impacts on people and the environment if they do occur and assisting with fire suppression activities.
Resilience is the capacity of an individual or a community to recover from an adverse event, such as a wildfire. Resilience is not a static notion, being resilient now, doesn’t mean you will be resilient forever and the opposite is also true. If you didn’t cope well this time, it may help to improve you resilience and you may cope better in the future. Instead it depends on what the event is, when it occurs, what other events have occurred, the experience of the person or the community or individuals in the community.
Resilience is a moving target. People and communities are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, depending on the circumstance and this changes over time and what makes people more or less resilient are varied and broad reaching. Resilience can also decrease rapidly eg a farmer may be coping well with the drought, having stored several years of feed, however, if all this feed is burnt in a wildfire the farmers ability to cope decreases almost overnight.
Three factors have been found to be important to individual resilience:
- Self-efficacy ie the conviction that one can behave or perform successfully in a given situation.
- Coping strategy, specifically use of problem-focused coping rather than emotion focused coping.
- Sense of community, or ‘the feeling of belonging or attachment to people and places’.
In other words, the individual’s sense of social connectedness; such connectedness has been shown to be associated with community and social support network involvement during times of disaster etc. This has a community-level equivalent in the notion of social capital.
In summary, individual response to an extreme event such as a wildfire is important to community resilience because communities are made up of individuals and the groups to which they belong, and are therefore relevant to the way a community responds.
Psychological research on disasters also provides a useful model for thinking about resilience as well as proven measures for assessing individual resilience in advance of and after an event.
Resilience: It’s about what we can do before the fire starts that increases our resilience.
With such a high wildfire incident rate resulting from the actions of people, community education in South Africa is particularly important. Education takes on a number of forms and is generally designed to provide people with a better understanding of the risks they face from Veld fires and the measures the community can take to minimize these risks.
Inadequate clearance around structures has been repeatedly identified as a major factor in the destruction of homes in wildfires. Defensible space is an area around a structure where vegetation is treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of wildfires toward the structure. The reduced volume of fuel results in a reduction in fire intensity, allowing fire fighters to remain with the structure during a wildfire. Inadequate protection or fire proofing of homesteads is the main reason for houses being destroyed during wildfires. One method is to clear grass within 10 metres of a structure. Irrigated ornamental plants are allowed within the 10-metre zone, trimming, pruning, mowing and selective removal of non-irrigated shrubs in the area between 10 and 30 metres from the structure, which is called the fuel modification zone.
Agriculture practices such as slash and burn and/or shifting agriculture by local communities have long been implicated as one of the main cause of wildfires. However, to be considered is that communities are also part of the solution as they often use fire positively to manage the landscape.
Mosaic burning under prescribed conditions creates a pattern of fuel loads of differing ages that reduce the possibility of a fire spreading. However, prescribed burning is just one tool in the toolbox. An irrigation system on both the edge of the property and on the roof of the structure can also help prevent these structures from being destroyed during a wildfire. Unless piping is adequately below the ground, it should consist of metal piping. The water supply and pump for this system should also be independent.
One major challenge faced by landowners in the hours after wildfire has burnt across their land, is how to feed livestock. Establishment of fodder banks on each farm may not help an individual landowner, however, it will mean that locally sourced fodder is available in the area and can be accessed easily. Too often we hear of donated fodder that has been transported over long distances at great cost, only to discover that once opened it is rotten. The wheels of Government turn slowly and in the event of a disaster having been declared and the possibility of funding being made available, this doesn’t solve the problem in the short term. Harvesting grass from lesser used road reserves has a duel beneficial effect; it lowers the fuel load and whilst possibly not the best quality, does provides emergency fodder. Strategically placed feeding areas on farms provide safe refuges for cattle in the event of a fire.
Protecting your farm resources from wildfires
Livestock producers
Concrete or metal buildings located away from fire paths provide a more fire safe livestock shelter option.
Owners should have an evacuation plan for livestock if threatened by fire. If your animals cannot be moved onto a safe area on your property, make and confirm transportation and feeding arrangements in advance.
The risk to farm animals can be reduced by preparing and maintaining fuel-reduced areas onto which stock can be moved and held during a fire. Use a ploughed or heavily grazed field with a minimum of grass or stubble. If possible, this field should be shaded and located well away from fire paths and to the leeward side of your property.
As a last resort, if you are unable to move livestock into a safer area, cut fences, turning the animals loose to take their chances with the fire as long as there is no danger to people or vehicular traffic.
Animal mortality is a regular occurrence on livestock operations; however, in the event of mass mortality, farmers and ranchers need to be prepared to manage large volumes of animal carcasses rapidly. The formulation of a mass mortality contingency plan is an essential step to timely and effective management of a potentially ‘messy’ situation.
Feed crops
An independent irrigation system with its own water supply will provide protection to structures and fodder banks.
Hay stacks, hay sheds and silos should be surrounded with a bare area, at least five metres wide, with another 20-metre wide fuel-reduced strip around this.
Do not attempt to burn off around these areas. Graze, mow or slash grass to desired height. Adequately dry hay before it is baled and stored to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion. Store hay away from roads and fences. Hay and straw are fine fuels and vulnerable to ember ignitions. Grazing livestock can be used to reduce flammable grass around buildings, fence lines and haystacks.
In case of fire
Having a comprehensive contingency plan may be useful should the question of due diligence arise as a result of an emergency situation. It is also critical that insurance policies be obtained and kept up to date to ensure eligibility for relevant emergency financial assistance.
The information in your farm contingency plan will help to ensure the safety of family members, employees and emergency responders, minimise financial loss, property damage and protect the environment. Your emergency response plan should include an overview of your property, identifying the location of storage areas, buildings, emergency equipment, utilities, wells and surface water. It should also include information on hazardous and flammable substances stored on the farm, manure handling information for livestock operations and emergency contact telephone numbers.
Don’t place yourself, your family or employees at risk; stay out of burning buildings. Eliminate the source of the fire, if possible. Assess extent of fire. Notify attending landowners of location, type and extent of the fire. Attempt to contain or eliminate the fire provided you can do this safely.
Protection of assets during periods of extreme fire risk can only be achieved if wildfire ignitions are attacked quickly and with maximum available resources. Even where pre-fire mitigation actions such as fuel reduction burning have been carried out, weather conditions on days of extreme fire danger will assist a small fire to build rapidly to an uncontrollable state. Previous research done in other countries clearly shows that the initial attack is critical to controlling and extinguishing a wildfires and that use of aircraft in this initial attack phase significantly increases the chances of successful result. Aircraft are a relatively expensive resource available to fire managers and we believe there is often a reluctance to use aircraft in the first instance in an attempt to save money. This is a false economy.
Aircraft cannot extinguish a bushfire without the support of ground crews. While an aircraft can drop water, retardant or chemically-enhanced water (using additives such as surfactants or water enhancing gels), these can only reduce the fire behaviour temporarily; unless directly attacked by supporting ground crews during this period and the fire will eventually burn through, around or over the drop, particularly if the fire is spotting heavily. Aircraft cannot mop-up burning and smouldering fuels, which are a primary source of reignition. If necessary, evacuate to agreed safe meeting place or local emergency services shelter.
Wildfires can cause more than visible damage to livestock
Analysing injuries to livestock following a wildfire is important, secondary problems can lead to infections and further problems.
• Livestock must be sought and given adequate nutrition; if necessary a veterinarian must be consulted
• If they can be moved to unburnt ground it is best for them.
• It is important to get livestock to high quality forage with a protein and mineral supplement and good water thereafter rotate their feeding area to prevent the build-up of pathogens.
• If livestock is unable to get adequate nutrition and water immediately, their health can deteriorate rapidly.
• Other livestock should be evaluated for possible health disorders and treatment or determining if the animal can be salvaged or if for humane reasons should be slaughtered or euthanised.
Can you determine the cause of the fire?
Post fire assessment: Review actions taken to contain, minimise or prevent the fire. There are four basic directions the results of the investigation can take:
1. Administrative action to recover costs for suppression and/or property loss.
2. Court proceedings under civil law to recover costs for suppression, and/or property loss.
3. Court proceedings for criminal violations of, national or local by-laws or regulations.
4. To assist in policy development, implementation of fire prevention programs and presuppression planning
Were there signs present before the incident? How could this be prevented? How did the clean-up progress? What has to be changed on your contingency plan?
Adaptive strategies are the most important when we look at developing the long term resilience of a community. They ensure that we can learn from an event, adapt to our changing environment and plan for the future.
Clean-up site
Follow spill reporting contingency plans in the event that a spill occurred as a result of the fire. Follow mass mortality contingency plan if large numbers of livestock or poultry died as a result of the fire. On farm disposal may be preferred for some; however site conditions ie high water tables, porous soils or heavy rainfall, may restrict the ability of a farm site to be used for disposal. The cause of the mass mortality will initially direct the disposal options.
Off-site disposal may be a more expensive option with less time and management requirements for the farm/ranch operation. Local government disposal sites should be considered when capacity to deal with mortalities on farm is overwhelmed. Local and regional off-site disposal is not available in all areas of the province.
Recovering from a fire may take a long time and many things will be new to landowners. If not insured, recovery from a loss will likely be dependent on their own resources and coping strategies that can be called upon. If landowners are insured, their insurance will be an important component in recovering from their loss.