Introduction
The author considers that large numbers of Australian towns and cities are inadequately prepared for bushfires.
This matter was initially assessed in a review on potential opportunities for improved town and city bushfire protection across Australia by O’Donnell (2021) and in another detailed review on town-and-city bushfire disaster review case studies and lessons across Australia by O’Donnell (2024). A considerable town and city disasters were considered in these reviews, including the capture of opportunities and lessons.
This latest review on identifying key town and city bushfire disaster lessons and insights for Australia, considering four more recent wildfire disasters in the USA and Canada, including at Palisades.
Recent US wildfire disasters, community impacts and brief lesson capture
Three major urban wildfire disasters in the US are outlined briefly below.
US 2025 Palisades and other Californian Wildfires
The first US wildfire considered is the US 2025 Palisades and other west coast Californian wildfires. Key details of the 2025 Palisades Fire are outlined on Wikipedia (26 February 2025):
The Palisades Fire was a highly-destructive wildfire that began burning in the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County on January 7, 2025, which grew to destroy large areas of Pacific Palisades, Topanga, and Malibu before it was fully contained after 24 days on January 31. One of a series of wildfires in Southern California driven by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, it burned 23,707 acres (9,594 ha; 95.94 km2; 37.042 sq mi), killed 29 people, and destroyed 6,837 structures, making it the tenth-deadliest and third-most destructive California wildfire on record and the most destructive to occur in the history of the city of Los Angeles.
Key details of the 2025 Californian Wildfires are outlined on Wikipedia (26 February 2025), including five separate wildfires:
There are photos to highlight the scale of the disaster by MSN: Flames to ashes: Capturing California’s fiery devastation in the link below:
A useful document prepared by Countryman (1974) for the US Forest Service highlighted the importance of fuel management in Southern California. Countryman highlighted key issues which remain important when he asked a key question in relation to why there are there so many fires in southern California? His responses are summarised below:
- Primarily because the Mediterranean climate and a distinctive complex of topography and fuel create conditions favorable to major fires during every month of the year. The winters are mild, with infrequent short rainy periods. A long period without rain often extends from early spring to late fall or early winter.
- Steep and rugged mountains, cut by numerous canyons, border most of the major cities.
- Much of the mountain land is covered with a dense growth of flammable chaparral shrubs, such as chamise, manzanita, eeanothus, and scrub oak. On the lower slopes and foothills, this heavy growth gives way to lighter, but extremely flammable vegetation, such as sage, buckwheat, and various grasses and forbs. Some of the higher ridges are covered with conifers—mostly pine—interspersed with chaparral and grass.
- With the onset of the long rainless season, the annual plants die, and the shrubs lose much of their moisture.
- Residential subdivisions and in- dividual houses have been pushing farther and farther into the mountains.
Countryman noted that the best approach to conflagration control through fuel modification appears to be the creation of a mosaic of fuel types rather than the mosaic of chaparral age classes envisioned in rotational burning.
The importance of managing fuels is critical.
Urza et al. (2023) noted that overall, fuel treatment effectiveness would be improved by the increased use of landscape-scale treatment designs that integrate fuels, topography, prevailing winds, fire or treatment history, and available infrastructure.
Cameron and Packham (2025) considered the Melbourne’s Fire Risk Matches LA and highlighted serious risks to Melbourne. They also noted other significant issues:
- Over the last 25 years, Victoria has witnessed wildfire in 72% of our 7.8 million hectares of primarily public native forest, including national parks, compared to only 21% of the 2.5 million hectares in southwest WA; and
- Canberra and Hobart, where bushfires impacted urban areas, had per capita insurance claims that were 26 times and 16 times higher respectively than WA over 54 years to 2020. Victoria, at eight times WA insurance claims, is set to go higher under current fire policy.
Evacuation routes and issues was another critical issue and is outlined in the links provided under evacuation in the reference list, note not all references were related to the 2025 wildfires:
The author has glanced through hundreds of reports in relation to these Southern California wildfires, that is for another day. However key lessons and insights from these wildfires in relation to fuel management, defendable space, house to house ignition, evacuation, water management and other issues have been teased out directly into the lessons and insights below.
US 2023 Maui Lahaina wildfire
As noted by Bassler (2025):
Hawaii officials have released their third and final report on Maui’s deadly Lahaina Fire in 2023, focusing on how each of Hawaii’s counties can prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
The Fire Safety Research Institute‘s “Lahaina Fire Forward-Looking Report” is phase three of a three-part investigation into the catastrophic wildfire. The group previously released the Lahaina Fire Comprehensive Timeline Report, which presents a chronology of the fire’s events, and the Lahaina Fire Incident Analysis Report, which looked into the systemic causes and response to the fire.
The full final report by Kerber and Alkonis (2025) titled Lahaina Fire Forward-Looking Report is available in the references: This includes the Lahaina Fire Incident Analysis Report (Phase Two) Findings and Recommendations as Appendix 7.1, this appendix provides useful information.
The initial report by Kerber and Alkonis (2024) titled The Lahaina Hawaii Fire Timeline Report is included in the reference list.
The approach used for the three reports is thorough and an open process and has merit. Hopefully, the three reports will assist in reducing similar tragedies in the future, but this will depend on effective capture and implementation of lessons and effective ongoing mitigation, funding and resourcing.
The lessons and insights from this disaster have been teased out directly into key lessons and insights in this review.
US 2021 Caldor Fire
Key details of the 2021 Caldor are outlined on Wikipedia (5 February 2025):
The Caldor Fire was a large wildfire that burned 221,835 acres (89,773 hectares) in the Eldorado National Forest and other areas of the Sierra Nevada in El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine County, California, in the United States during the 2021 California wildfire season.[2] The fire was first reported on Saturday, August 14, 2021, and was fully contained on Thursday, October 21, 2021. The Caldor Fire destroyed 1,005 structures and damaged 81 more, primarily in the US Highway 50 corridor and in the community of Grizzly Flats, 2/3 of which was destroyed by the fire.
Useful information in relation to the US Caldor Wildfire of 2021 is outlined in the links outlined under the Caldor Wildfire provided at the bottom of the reference list.
The lessons and insights from this disaster have been teased out directly into the lessons and insights in this review.
Canada 2024 Jasper Wildfire, community impact and lesson capture
Key details of the Canada 2024 Jasper Wildfire are outlined on Wikipedia (5 February 2025):
In July 2024, a wildfire complex developed in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Fires formed north and south of the resort town of Jasper and grew out of control, and on July 22 they forced a mass evacuation of 25,000 residents, workers, and visitors. The fires merged and swept through the town, destroying 358 of its 1,113 structures. The evacuation order lasted until August 17, but fires to the south continued to burn out of control. On September 7 Parks Canada announced that the wildfire was under control with the fire estimated to be 32,722 hectares (80,860 acres) in size ] One firefighter was killed in efforts to contain the blaze, and insurance companies paid $880 million in claims, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in Canadian history. Jasper fire topped the list of Canada’s 10 most impactful weather stories of 2024.
In addition, useful information in relation to the Canadian Jasper Wildfire of 2024 is outlined in the links below:
- https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/jasper/visit/feu-alert-fire/feudeforet-jasper-wildfire#:~:text=Wildfire%20status%20%E2%80%94%20Under%20Control,further%20spread%20of%20the%20fire.
Key lessons and insights from these wildfires in relation to fuel management, house to house ignition have been teased out directly into the lessons and insights below.
Key town and city bushfire disaster lessons and insights for priority actioning
The key town and city bushfire disaster lessons and insights are outlined in this section are derived from:
- O’Donnell (2024) in relation to town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons across Australia. Nineteen Australian town and city impact and disaster bushfire case studies are outlined, twenty-two lesson and insight broad areas are outlined in the review, including a considerable number of lessons and insights, 127 in all;
- O’Donnell (2021) in relation to assessment of potential opportunities for improved town and city bushfire protection across Australia. The focus of the document was on exploring many opportunities to best protect towns and cities from bushfires, optimising resident safety and optimising firefighter safety;
- New legislation and approaches in the US, including Wildfire Crisis A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests; National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and the Fix Our Forests legislation for resilient fire landscapes;
- Recent major disastrous bushfires in the US, Canada and also in Victoria;
- The economic importance of increasing bushfire mitigation; and
- Recent state manslaughter legislation further considered in relation to bushfire preparation, preparedness, mitigation, suppression and fire fighter and community safety.
The author is aware that bushfire mitigation, fuel management, active and adaptive management, community and fire fighter safety have been at inadequate levels over the last 30 years, except for parts of Northern Australia and SW Western Australia. Thus, no apologies are made for the strong focus in this review in relation to all these areas in relation to the lessons and insights outlined below.
This paper has not assessed lessons in relation to fire seasons, fire weather and climate. These have been well covered in Burrows (2019) and many other papers.
There have been too many failures, too many bushfire disasters and ongoing failures, it is essential that these lessons are captured and implemented. Key town and city bushfire disaster lessons and insights are outlined below, using the author’s wording.
A top priority lesson area relates to fuel management, avoiding high fuel loads and large contiguous tracts of high forest fuel loads across landscapes. This includes moderate to high fuel loads well away from communities (which increase firebrand, long fire runs and containment risks), adjacent to and within communities, which often results in severe fire behaviour and often prevents early suppression of bushfires.
Another top priority lesson area relates to prescribed burning and adaptive management programs across landscapes.
The Number 1 priority is to utilise the science and experience in other jurisdictions that highlights the level of landscape burning needs to be 8-10% per annum if any significant bushfire risk reduction benefits are to be realised (e.g., refer to WA data including Boer et al. 2009 and other data on the WA Bushfire Front website). https://www.bushfirefront.org.au/prescribed-burning/why-prescribed-burning/ It is important to utilise the research of Florec (2016) in relation to the value of prescribed burning. The long-term analysis shows that not doing any prescribed burning for several years can be very costly for the south-west of WA, with large increases in damages and suppression expenditures.
Number 2 lesson is to remove/ refine conservation and environmental policies, barriers, practices and slow approvals that result in long return fire intervals for low intensity burning, massive fuel loads and strata, contiguous fuel loads, intense megafires and dangerous conditions for fire fighters and communities.
Number 3 lesson is to undertake hazard and fuel reduction using a range of mitigation activities, including any one or a combination of burning, slashing, mechanical intervention, thinning and grazing. Consider mechanical thinning of dense forests and reducing the number of smaller trees and vegetation (and drought stress), noting that thinning lessens the intensity of future wildfires.
Number 4 lesson is that it essential to establish resilient safe, healthy landscapes in Australian eucalypt forests, including mitigation/ adaptive management work in the US on resilient landscapes in relation to bushfires. The US offers valuable approaches in relation to Wildfire Crisis A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests; National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and the Fix Our Forests legislation for resilient fire landscapes and safer communities for Australia, including low intensity burning, thinning, grazing and other active management.
There are many community bushfire safety and protection lessons and insights.
Number 1 lesson is to design, layout, manage and maintain towns and cities that best address defendable space requirements and important issues such as bushfire wicks, bushfire funnels, ember attack, house-to-house ignition. density of housing, safe landscaping, fire safe tree selection, use of timber fences and treatment of fuels. ember-free regulations ordered four years ago to help fire-proof homes. A US California state law adopted in August of 2020 requires a zone zero, a 1.52 metre area surrounding homes in high fire hazard areas. This was designed to reduce wildfire ignitions by putting rock, brick or paving around structure perimeters and removing wood fences and vegetation that can wick wildfires into a house.
Number 2 lesson is to complete a review of density of all wall to wall housing in relation to bushfire risks and address opportunities for current housing areas and new housing projects, considering town and city bushfire disasters in Australia, the US and Canada.
Number 3 lesson is to review new proposed and current housing at the Wildland Urban Interface areas in relation to soundness of building in higher bushfire risk locations, fire safe design and fuels management. It is also important to review town and city fire hazard severity zones and fire safety building codes for bushfire affected communities.
Number 4 lesson is to coordinate collaborative approaches to reduce the threat of bushfires to communities and in the Wildland Urban Interface. Consider the fuel reduction approach which the Kurrajong Heights Brigade in NSW has developed and consider implementation for all Australian towns and cities. This hazard reduces vegetation blocks using a mosaic pattern for large areas surrounding the town. This Kurrajong Heights strategy keeps low fuel areas as a blocking influence for approaching bushfires. The Kurrajong Heights has a highly successful BFMP that has kept the community safe for 68 years and the Kurrajong Heights BFMP relies heavily on local knowledge and knowledge of terrain, fire behaviour and fire paths.
Number 5 lesson is to provide effective bushfire community support and programs. Victoria, SA, Tasmania, SA and WA which have community fire participation programs in place. This government support is critical, noting this issue has important link with the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, critical infrastructure resilience strategies and emergency management arrangements.
Number 6 lesson is to consider adoption of the community protection approaches as used for US communities for all Australian towns and cities, including Firewise, local fire safe councils, the Fire Adapted Communities and the Ready and Set, Go! Program.
Number 7 lesson is to undertake a detailed examination of all current Community Protection Plans (such as NSW towns, 117 communities), Community Information Guides – Bushfire (Victoria, 278 communities) and other approaches in other states for improvement opportunities, successes and failures, including against the 2019/ 20 bushfires, where large number of such communities were badly affected. This would include community bushfire risk rating, area of community covered, fuel loads, prescribed burning, state owned lands, fire brand risks, risks of bushfire/ megafire entry into towns and cities, mitigation measures, community involvement and extent of annual assessment and mitigation undertaken each year. Also, examine towns and cities without such community protection plans.
Number 8 lesson is to adopt town and city fire safe approaches and documents, including Can We Better Fire-Proof Our Country Towns? Using matches and machines to reduce fuel load and also AFPA (2020) Using Fire and Machines to Better Fire-Proof Our Country Towns, Australian Forest Products Association.
Number 9 lesson is to undertake extreme care in relation to household and community landscaping plant selection and there is guidance available in relation to this.
Evacuation and access route lessons and insights include the undertaking of annual assessment of safety of town/ city evacuation and bushfire access routes in the event of a bushfire/ s and undertake required actions. For towns and cities with single evacuation routes, optimise the safety of these routes and plan other options for evacuation such as by sea, beaches and water. Review all potential evacuation choke points and consider options and opportunities. Also assess densely populated and narrow roadways which can hinder evacuation and fire fighter movement during suppression (as well as evacuation and rescue) efforts. Plan for alternate evacuation and access routes.
In relation to fire fighter safety lessons and insights, the key lesson is the optimisation of the safety of fire-fighters, especially in relation to treating high fuel loads areas and consequent high bushfire intensities and also reduce the enormous responsibility on incident controllers when deciding where to allocate firefighters.
In relation to bushfire prevention, preparation, preparedness and suppression lessons and insights:
Number 1 lesson is the readjustment of expenditure distribution mix from the current large focus on bushfire suppression, response and recovery focus (with limited fire mitigation) towards an approach much more focussed on bushfire prevention, mitigation and preparedness such as prescribed burning, adaptive mechanical treatment/ thinning of dense forests to reduce bushfire risks to communities and forests.
The author considers Number 2 lesson is the dismantling of large centralised fire regimes/ bureaucracies that are in reality very expensive to run and establish regional/ local government fire bodies that manage fire mitigation effectively across landscapes, improve community and fire fighter safety, tackle the key fire issues that are not being adequately addressed and reduce insurance costs.
Number 3 lesson is the implementation of measures that make forest bushfire suppression easier (such as bushfire fighting and measures such as backburning), safer and cheaper and also reduces bushfire losses, including human, built and environmental, including regular landscape prescribed burning and adaptive management across landscapes.
Number 4 lesson is reviewing the bushfire fighting limitations of large and very large aircraft in regards to costs, effectiveness in forests, stand down times, forests with thick understories and heavy surface fuel loads and safety risks.
In relation to barriers, restrictions, red tape, poor policy, inadequate legislation and over regulation lesson and insight capture, barriers, restrictions, red tape, poor policy, inadequate legislation and over regulation isn’t the answer for bushfire management. The answer involves around maximised fire mitigation, active management, short fire intervals and total focus on community and fire fighter safety. So, a review of barriers, restrictions and over regulation is an important step to improve bushfire management.
A major lesson area is the preparation and management of bushfire risk management plans is preparing focussed on individual towns/ cities with greater community participation, with plans and mitigation updated annually. This includes assessment if local government bushfire risk management plans are generic documents, cover very large areas, with limited fire mitigation often undertaken annually and assess effectiveness of the overall approach.
Another major lesson area is the adoption of policies and practices that reduce/ minimise the excessive number and area of intense bushfires and megafires that are continuing. This includes addressing that we are not learning the lessons from large area intense bushfires, including increasing areas of dense regrowth and future bushfire risks.
In relation to bushfire expertise lessons and insights, assessing and addressing the loss of skilled forestry service fire fighters and managers in many states is critically urgent, noting forest services have and are being destroyed and skills of many forest services inadequately utilised. Also critical, is fully valuing volunteer fire fighters and the skills that they bring to organisations and develop improved measures to look after this volunteer workforce.
There are critical lessons in relation mitigation research. Optimising the focus on fire mitigation research and resilient safe landscapes, including research that better addresses establishing resilient landscapes, addresses eucalypt decline, removes extreme fire intervals, better assesses the impacts of huge fuel loads and strata, optimises community safety, optimises fire fighter safety, assesses the changes to forest structure and diversity that intense bushfires bring and assesses the huge climate impacts of intense bushfires emitting carbon.
Another lesson is improved incorporation of the lessons from US forest and fire research, including addressing the past long term wildfire suppression focus, treating dense forests by a broad range of adaptive and mitigation treatments, treating forest decline and many other research studies.
There are a large number of economic, efficiency and accountability lessons and insights. These are outlined in the link below.
These economic, efficiency and accountability lessons and insights are critical action areas to reduce the severe impacts of large area megafires and consequent impacts on communities, fire fighters, ecosystems, insurance costs and budgets.
Conclusions
There have been too many bushfires wakeup calls across Australia, the US, Canada and in other countries that have been ignored and in many cases, lessons and insights not captured, experienced operators not listened to and in many cases there is ongoing complacency, acceptance of current failed approaches and ongoing barriers to regular low intensity burning across landscapes. In many cases there is inadequate political and organisation will to address all these issues and issues in relation to inadequate accountability.
An issue that greatly concerns the author is that Australia has not really fully nor effectively captured and locked in many of the key lessons in relation to avoiding and reducing town and city bushfire disasters across communities on an ongoing basis, except for isolated cases. This also applies to fire fighter safety.
It’s time to capture the town and city bushfire disaster lessons and insights that have been available, but not effectively captured, adopted nor shared over the last 20 plus years. It’s time to wake up and action the lessons and insights.
There is inadequate funding of bushfire mitigation in Australia, including prescribed burning and other fuel management measures. There are large government savings to be made through increasing expenditure on mitigation, and so reducing the costs of responding to natural disasters, including bushfires. Savings in bushfire suppression expenditure, recovery expenditure, bureaucracy expenditure and efficiencies can be extracted, while at the same time increasing employment in mitigation and forest resilience programs. There are opportunities for economic reform within fire management across Australia and this is essential considering the huge ongoing impacts of disastrous bushfires, especially in SE Australia.
It would be beneficial if governments across Australia, fire services, brigades, communities, home owners, business owners and landholders considered and acted on these lessons and insights in order to reduce bushfire disasters and improve town, city and firefighter safety, as well as town and city bushfire protection, bushfire preparedness and hopefully reduce increasing business and home insurance costs. The key lessons and insights provide a base for consideration, it is up to governments, communities, to adopt key lessons and insights into their own administration areas, including policies and practices.
If Australia doesn’t improve actioning in regards to capturing and implementing town and city bushfire lessons and insights, there will continue to be large scale impacts on communities, community members, fire fighters, the environment and massive economic and insurance impacts.
References
Bassler H (2025) In wake of deadly Lahaina wildfire, new Hawaii report sheds light on how to stop future tragedies Posted on January 27, 2025 Wildfire Today https://wildfiretoday.com/2025/01/27/in-wake-of-deadly-lahaina-wildfire-new-hawaii-report-sheds-light-on-how-to-stop-future-tragedies/
Boer MM, Sadler RJ, Wittkuhn RS, McCaw L, Pauline F. Grierson PF (2009) Long-term impacts of prescribed burning on regional extent and incidence of wildfires—Evidence from 50 years of active fire management in SW Australian forests, Forest Ecology and Management Volume 259, Issue 1, 5 December 2009, Pages 132-142.
Burrows N (2019) Lessons and Insights From Significant Bushfires In Australia and Overseas, Informing the 2018 Queensland Bushfires Review , Commissioned by the Office of the Inspector-General Emergency Management, Queensland Bushfires and Natural Hazards CRC, FireNinti Consulting- May 2019
Cameron J and Packham D (2025) Melbourne’s Fire Risk Matches LA Quadrant Doomed Planet Feb 04 2025. https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/doomed-planet/melbournes-fire-risk-matches-la/#:~:text=A%20similar%20fire%20starting%20at,ignition%20in%20densely%20populated%20areas.
Countryman, Clive M. 1974. Can southern California wildland conflagrations be stopped? Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Exp. Stri., Berkeley, Calif., 11 p. (USDA Forest Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-7). https://www.fs.usda.gov/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr007/psw_gtr007.pdf
Florec and Pannell (2016) Economic assessment of bushfire risk management options in Western Australia: case studies in the Perth Hills and in the south-west of Western Australia. Report Prepared for the State Emergency Management Committee Secretariat, June.
Kerber S and Alkonis D (2024) Lahaina Fire Comprehensive Timeline Report 17 April https://doi.org/10.54206/102376/VQKQ5427
Kerber S and Alkonis D (2025) Lahaina Fire Forward-Looking Report Steve Kerber Derek Alkonis UL Research Laborities Inc 14 January This publication is available free of charge from: https://doi.org/10.60752/102376.28074944 https://d1gi3fvbl0xj2a.cloudfront.net/2025-01/Lahaina_Fire_Forward_Looking_Report_010924_Final.pdf
O’Donnell J (2021) Potential opportunities for improved town and city bushfire protection across Australia. John O’Donnell. June 2021 Volunteer Fire Fighters Association. https://volunteerfirefighters.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Potential-opportunities-for-towncity-protection-across-Aust-final.pdf
O’Donnell J (2024) titled “Town and city bushfire disaster review, case studies and lessons across Australia” in Australian Rural and Regional News 7 June
Urza AK, Hanberry BB and Jain TB (2023) Landscape-scale fuel treatment effectiveness: lessons learned from wildland fire case studies in forests of the western United States and Great Lakes region Fire Ecology (2023) 19:1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-022-00159-y
Wikipedia 2021 Caldor Fire (5 February 2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldor_Fire
Wikipedia 2024 Jasper Wildfire (5 February 2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Jasper_wildfire
Wikipedia 2025 Californian Wildfires (26 February 2025).
Wikipedia 2025 Palisades Fire (26 February 2025).
Evacuation and routes and the US Palisades wildfires
- https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5252742
- https://www.kqed.org/science/1946668/data-pinpoints-14-california-communities-with-most-limited-emergency-escape-routes#:~:text=California’s%20two%20most%20evacuation%2Dconstrained,the%20Woolsey%20Fire%20in%202018.
Useful information in relation to the US Caldor Wildfire of 2021 is outlined in the links below:
- https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/thinning-forests-to-protect-communities-lessons-from-lake-tahoes-caldor-fire
Useful information in relation to the Canadian Jasper Wildfire of 2024 is outlined in the links below:
- https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/jasper/visit/feu-alert-fire/feudeforet-jasper-wildfire#:~:text=Wildfire%20status%20%E2%80%94%20Under%20Control,further%20spread%20of%20the%20fire.