CFA’s Rachel Bessell represented CFA on the international stage at a conference in Portugal last month.
The 8th International Conference on Forest Fire Research was held in Coimbra, Portugal last November.
The conference was held in the aftermath of the worst forest fires to have occurred in Portugal, in June and October 2017. Fires have also ravaged Greece and southern Italy in 2018, to go with the devastating and ongoing Californian fires.
Rachel Bessell, of the Bushfire Research and Development Team, presented twice during the conference.
“I presented on CFA’s research into tanker crew protection systems. No other country has conducted the rigorous validation tests that we have, ensuring our tankers are amongst the safest in the world.”
“With all the fires in Portugal and California and elsewhere, we found that globally we’re having a lot of the same problems in fires keep reoccurring.
“The conference was a great experience and I certainly learnt a lot.
“In Portugal during the study tour we found was that many of the communities had actually taken it on themselves to educate and spread awareness about the dangers of bushfires”.
The conference is held every four years, and attracts experts from across the world to discuss developments in forest fire science and technology, and to promote international cooperation in the areas of management and research.