In his nearly seven decades as a volunteer firefighter, Keilira farmer Rob England has used fire for agriculture and fought blazes in all sorts of conditions, learning valuable lessons about how fire behaves.
With another bushfire season upon us, he is desperate for fire controlling authorities Australia wide to recognise his Remote Outer Border System which he claims offers a better way to extinguish a fire than ground crews or aerial bombers directly attacking walls of flames.
He has spent the best part of 20 years trying to convince the authorities particularly the Country Fire Service of the merits of his back burning system through letters to regional and state commanders, emergency services ministers and even putting together a training manual for CFS volunteers.
"It devastates me the loss of assets and even lives that could so easily have be avoided so I am not going to step back," he said.
Mr England first saw the potential of using fuel reduced fire control lines at a Padthaway fire in 2004 when he had his own close call with death, nearly colliding with a fire truck.
The Remote Outer Border System works on the CFS training manual principle that all fires go out without fuel.
He says after wetting the grass adjacent to the outer, or away from fire rear wheel of a truck to the ground surface, a subdued fire is lit in the compressed material within the wheel track.
One side of this fire goes out against the wet strip while the other side consumes the fuel between the wet line and the approaching fire. He says both fires go out simultaneously when they consume all the intervening fuel.
"Between 300mL and 1.5L of water are used per metre of border created, depending on the fuel load but way less than the 15L/m used during direct attack firefighting," he said.
Over the years Mr England, a former deputy group officer of Lacepede Group, claims he has established 38kms of these borders and stopped fires in their tracks.
He has even refined the system to allow a gas flame assisted drip torch mounted on a farm fire unit to light a border at 40km/hour. This can be remotely controlled from the comfort of a cab.
Mr England says he has not had one metre escape so he says people need not fear that there will be another fire to contend with.
From studying recent fires closely Mr England says the CFS's expansion of its aerial fleet is not the best action and instead wants back burning equipment on at least four trucks in each group.
"Aerial bombers are great at knocking down a fire but they don't put them out and the water is often dropped on areas with stumps or a heavy fuel load where it is difficult to extinguish fires and they often can easily re-kindle," he said.
Mr England says he was recently informed by chief officer Brett Loughlin that the CFS has no intention of adopting his particular system but he is not giving up as he believes it is the quickest, safest, most efficient and permanent system of fire control he has ever come across.
He has even self published a book - A Burning Pain - which outlines the system and how it has been successfully used.
"The Remote Outer Border System can be used to control fires even in the most extreme weather when other systems can't be applied or fail and what other type of fire fighting can you do in air conditioned comfort," he said.
"As we come into possibly our worst fire danger season ever, it will be a travesty if we let the miseries associated with current Direct Attack firefighting systems continue, while the obvious benefits of the Remote Outer Border System of Fire Control which are so readily available, and capable of controlling most of these devastating fires remains un-used."
In response to Mr England's claims, the CFS says together with its partner agencies across Australia, it continues to implement and review firefighting strategies to minimise the impact of fire across the landscape.
This ranges from direct firefighting strategies, combined attacks with fire fighters on the ground and in the air to indirect attack utilising machinery and back burning strategies to suit the conditions and terrain against a mineral earth or wet line approach.
The CFS spokesperson said Local Incident Management Teams review each fire's activity, direction, impacts and the vegetation types to determine the most suitable tactics and strategies to manage, contain and extinguish fires.
"With a strong network of collaboration across fire services and land management agencies across Australia, the CFS is comfortable that our current tactics and strategies are in line with national best practice and policy," the statement said.
Earlier this year at Livestock SA's southern region meeting at Robe, members unanimously passed two motions calling on the organisation to discuss the Remote Outer Border System with the CFS and advocate for its adoption.
Livestock SA has referred the issue to Primary Producers SA as it is applicable to all agricultural industries and says it will keep reminding PPSA to ensure it discusses Mr England's approach through the State Bushfire Coordination Committee.
To view the Remote Outer Border System of Fire Control head to bluebirdbooks.com.au
