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- Info
Big versus small fires: the bushfires of greater Sydney, January 1994
| Author: |
Gill, A.M.; Moore, P.H.R. |
| Date: |
1998 |
| Periodical: |
In: Large forest fires. Leiden, The Netherlands: Backhuys Publishers |
| Abstract: |
The landscape fires ("bushfires") of January 1994 in and around the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Figure 1) received worldwide media attention. Locally, the fires were unprecedented in terms of the structural damage they caused and the catchment from which firefighters and equipment were drawn. This account attempts to put these fires into geographic, historical and management contexts. We consider only the fires which occurred in what may be regarded as the "Greater-Sydney Region" (defined below). The fires in this study represent only a subset of the hundreds of fires that occurred in December-January of the 1993-4 fire season in New South Wales (Koperberg 1994). The fires of the Greater Sydney Region varied widely in size-up to 55,550 ha (Table 1). This variation allows a consideration of the importance, or otherwise, of fire size in relation to building damage and, therefore, which management strategies may be appropriate for avoiding such damage. Building-loss is only one consideration of fire and fuel management in landscapes. The wider scope of the subject is explored. |
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