Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation launched at the National Press Club today the Fire Shield program.
Launch Event
The Hon Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology opened the launch event. The event can be viewed here:
Media Release
The media relase can be found here.
Program Web Site
The Minderoo Foundation has a dedicated part of its web site to Fire Shield:
The Mission
Minderoo describes it mission as follows:
Our goal by 2025 is to reduce the scale and impact of bushfires by being able to extinguish dangerous fires within an hour. Fires become more difficult to extinguish the longer they burn and the larger they become. Detecting and responding to fires quickly can minimise the scale of a fire and therefore its potential negative impacts.
We may not always want to extinguish fires quickly, given the role of fire in regenerating the landscape and native plant species, but we need to have the capability to extinguish fires that have the potential to become a disaster.
Emergency Management Australia and state-based fire services play an essential role as a key end user for this mission. We will work closely with them to ensure Fire Shield outcomes can be integrated for the best possible impact.
Their four areas of focus are:
The VFFA will follow the work of the Minderoo Foundation with great interest.