Incident Management in Australasia

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Lessons Learnt from Emergency Responses

Edited by: Stuart Ellis, Kent MacCarter

eBook - June 2016 - eRetailers

History, issues and lessons from 10 notable fire, flood and emergency incidents throughout Australasia.

Emergency services personnel conduct their work in situations that are inherently dangerous. Large incidents such as bushfires, floods and earthquakes often pose hazards that are not fully understood at the time of management, and the situation may be further complicated by the involvement of multiple agencies. To promote the safety of personnel and of the broader community, incident management skills must be constantly developed. + Full description

Incident Management in Australasia presents lessons learnt from managing major incidents at regional and state levels. It is not an academic work. Rather, it is a collection of stories from professionals on the ground and others who subsequently reviewed the events and gained significant knowledge and understanding through that process. Some stories are personal, capturing emotional impact and deep reflection, and others are analytical, synthesising the findings of experience and inquests. All the stories relate to managing operational events and capture knowledge that no one person could gain in a single career.

This book builds on current industry strategies to improve emergency responses. It will assist incident managers and those working at all levels in incident management teams, from Station Officer to Commissioner. It is highly readable and will also be of interest to members of the public with an appreciation for the emergency services.

- Short description

Details

Features

History, issues and lessons from 10 notable fire, flood and emergency incidents throughout Australasia in the past 15 years
Events covered have been chosen as major and/or indicative events from around Australia and New Zealand
Chapters reflect both the operation and personal experiences of the authors

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction by Stuart Ellis AM

Chapter 1: Fire catastrophe at Wangary on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
Euan Ferguson AFSM
Chapter 2: Incident management in Bundaberg during the 2013 Queensland Floods
John Watson
Chapter 3: Responding to the Myer building fire in Hobart
Gavin Freeman
Chapter 4: The aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, 2011
Stuart Ellis AM
Chapter 5: A highway cyanide spill at Tennant Creek
Leigh Swift
Chapter 6: Firefighter entrapment during routine hazard reduction burn at Mt Kuring-gai
Bob Conroy
Chapter 7: Large petrochemical fire in Adelaide’s industrial precinct
Roy Thompson
Chapter 8: Thirty per cent of the entire state: Victorian floods, 2011
Trevor White
Chapter 9: Thinking differently, leading differently: Lessons from the Canberra Fires, 2003
Mark Crosweller AFSM FAIM
Chapter 10: Bushfire around Linton Township, Victoria
Greg Leach
Index

View the full table of contents.

Authors

Stuart Ellis is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council. He began his career as an Army Officer, serving for over 22 years with the Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment. In 1996, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer/Chief Officer of the South Australian Country Fire Service. He later established a consultancy company and has been involved in over 20 operational reviews including the Canberra Bushfires, the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission and the operational response to the Christchurch Earthquake. He was appointed to his current role at AFAC in 2012.

Kent MacCarter is Print and Online Developer for the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council, and has been involved in writing, editing and publishing Australian non-fiction and fiction for the past decade at various major publishers. He is also the editor of Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home, a memoir collection from writers describing their immigration to Australia.