AFAC documentation – Respiratory Protection

AFAC documentation – Respiratory Protection

Fire, land management and emergency workers can be exposed to a range of hazards and risks when completing work tasks. These may vary depending on the incident type, the urgency of response and environmental conditions.

Given the nature of emergency response work, it has been acknowledged that established safe work practices and risk management approaches that apply in non-emergency situations may not be appropriate to use while responding to an emergency. Additionally, the practice of prescribed burning gives rise to situations where it is impossible for workers to avoid some exposure to bushfire smoke. Agencies have an obligation to ensure that their responders are protected from hazards, as far as reasonably practicable, regardless of whether they are responding to an emergency or not.

NSW Bushfires – State Memorial

NSW Bushfires – State Memorial

A State Memorial for those impacted by the recent bushfires will take place on Sunday 23 February 2020 at the Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park. Those attending are asked to arrive from 10:30am and to be seated by 11:20am.

The event is an opportunity to bring together members of the public from across NSW to recognise the lives lost, the sacrifices made and to show support for the families and communities impacted by the fires.

All relatives, friends, representatives of involved organisations and members of the public are welcome to attend the State Memorial.

“Chewing smoke” Are volunteer firefighters getting the protection they need?

“Chewing smoke” Are volunteer firefighters getting the protection they need?

Bushfire smoke is dangerous. It’s full of tiny suspended fine particulate matter, measuring only 2.5 micrometres (written as PM2.5). To get an idea of how small that is, a micrometre is 1000 times smaller than a millimetre. Particles that size easily get into your lungs and cause inflammation, resulting in symptoms like itchiness, coughing, watery eyes and sneezing. They get into your bloodstream and affect your respiratory, cardiovascular and immune systems and change your body’s chemical functions.

Also present in bushfire smoke are toxic contaminants like carbon monoxide, respiratory irritants (particles, formaldehyde, acrolein) and volatile organic compounds (like benzene).

That’s concerning when it’s just for a few days a year, but now that many firefighters have already clocked up over 100 days and the summer’s not yet over, there’s a debate about whether enough is being done to protect them.

Exclusive: Abbott opens up to Sky News about catastrophic bushfire season

EXCLUSIVE: Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his firefighting brigade colleagues have spoken to Sky News host Peta Credlin of the “immense” challenges they have faced during this season’s devastating bushfire season.

Serving as a volunteer for the NSW Rural Fire Service for 20 years, Mr Abbott and his fellow firefighters have opened up about the enormous toll the fire season has taken and how communities have rallied together to support each other during the last few catastrophic months.

Fire in East Gippsland – Recollections of John Mulligan

When my grandmother’s older sister (Mrs Coleman) first came to Mallacoota (ahead of the arrival of my grandparents), she said there was a small band of aborigines, who moved about, burning wherever they went. However, they went with drovers taking cattle from the Bega area to Port Albert for shipping to Tasmania. They never returned.

However, fire was a constant in the bush. Everyone learned to live with it. They had to, as there were no bulldozers, water tankers, aircraft, 4WDs with teams of fire fighters, computer modelling, fire planning, CFA etc.

Bush dwellers of the time had a completely different understanding of the necessity of regular fire in the environment and its acceptance, than that of the majority of people today. Smoke was something we learned to live with. In good weather, particularly the autumn, smoke would lag in the valleys and on the lakes and low lying areas, sometimes making it difficult to navigate on the water.

With the government preferring or directing that burning not take place until after the Easter holidays, some of the best autumn burning conditions are missed. The opportunity to fuel reduce even small areas has contributed to the mess we now have.