Bushfire discovery 'will save lives'
Australian and international researchers say their breakthroughs on bushfire behaviour will help prepare for future catastrophic events.
For nine years researchers at the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) and the University of New South Wales have been studying the 2003 Canberra firestorm that killed four people and destroyed around 500 homes.
The fires also impacted the high country of New South Wales and Victoria.
ACT ESA researcher Rick McRae says they discovered the intense fires spread in two directions at once.
They have termed the behaviour 'fire channelling'.
"The most intense fire being at the back of the fire is something that is unexpected," he said.
They also found fires can spread sideways through rugged country at up to 5 kilometres per hour.
Sheltered mountain terrain was found to burn more intensely than exposed country.
The findings have been published by the CSIRO's International Journal of Wildland Fire and have been reproduced by fire researchers in the United Kingdom, Portugal, United States and New Zealand.
ACT Emergency Services Commissioner Mark Crosweller says the findings are profound and will help save lives.
"The notion of fire channelling, the fact that the flanks can be as intense if not more so, as can the back of the fire, is quite profound in terms of fire fighting knowledge," he said.
"It has always been assumed the head fo the fire is the most intense part of the fire.
"This will force us to go back and look at strategies and how we deploy, how we issue warnings."
Commissioner Crosweller says the study shows the importance of rigorous investigation.
"The data that informed the research and the ultimate outcomes was captured during the major operation. That's quite rare in Australian fire fighting terms. We tend to fight the fire and then investigate the causes afterwards," he said.
"We need to bring research in a lot earlier into operations and we need to be a little bit patient waiting for the outcomes of the quality research that will inform better decision making."