The Australasian Association of Fire Investigators (AAFI) conference, held in Bendigo from 7 to 9 November 2018, focused on bushfire investigation with a theme of 'the learning is in the ashes'.
Fire Investigators at the AAFI 2018 conference practical field day. Photo Credit: Nicole Harvey
Over 130 representatives attended the conference consisting of firefighters and fire investigators from fire services across Australia and also New Zealand. Personnel also attended from police forces, Arson & Explosives Squad detectives, forensic services, private industry fire investigation companies, university lecturers and researchers.
CFA districts/regions supported 36 CFA fire investigators from across the state to attend this conference to obtain the latest information in this specialist field.
The conference included two half-day lectures from a range of International, National and Victorian State speakers along with a practical field day to observe fire behaviour and conduct investigations of vegetation fires.
The following provides an overview of the topics that were presented as part of the conference program over the three days:
Day 1
Presentations included:
- Fire, hazardous trees and fire investigators
- What’s new or interesting in Victorian bushfire investigation
- Overview of the Black Saturday Fires 2009 from the Victoria Police Forensic Services perspective
- Observations on short-term ageing of fires in South East Queensland
At the conclusion of the presentations, a briefing session on fire ground safety for Fire Investigators was conducted in preparation for the practical field training session scheduled as part of Day two of the conference program.
Day 2
Conference participants travelled to the Maiden Gully area where they were divided into four teams to undertake practical scene examinations of recent vegetation fires that had occurred in the area.
Following lunch, the conference participants travelled to a grassland site outside of Castlemaine to take part in live burns of small grass fires.
The live burns provided the fire investigators the opportunity to observe the fire behaviour from ignition through to extinguishment.
Fire investigators then had the opportunity to examine the scenes to identify the key indicators based on fuel type, topography and weather conditions to track the fire’s path back to the area of origin and point of origin.
Day 3
Presentations included:
- Lessons from the investigation into the Catherine Hill Bay fire
- Bushfire Mitigation: Deploying Raid Earth Fault Current Limiters
- Use of drones at fire investigation scenes
- Electrical network ignition sources for wildfires
- Overview and comparison of the USA fire investigation processes
- Social Media: An aid to wildfire investigation
By attending this conference, CFA fire investigators were able to obtain the latest information and knowledge in the area of bushfire investigation along with conducting practical skills maintenance activities in identifying fire indicators to determine the origin, cause and path of vegetation fires.
The conference also provided opportunities for the CFA fire investigators to network with other fire investigators from Australasian Fire Services to compare and share experiences, knowledge and information.