The Royal Commission recommendation for aircraft to be automatically dispatched has resulted in fast attack and stopped bushfires, including one at Creswick, from spreading quickly and dangerously.

While the fire season has been mild to date, CFA district 15 acting operations manager Alfred Mason has lauded the program a success as the Climate Council warns that the state will increasingly face dangerous bushfire weather.

“Air attack can make a massive difference on the head of the fire,” Mr Mason said.

He said ground crews could attack the flank while air crews attacked the head.

“The ground crews have to make clear, because they can’t attack the same area at the same time.”

The dispatch program is one element of the state’s increasingly innovative fire aimed at tackling growing fire risk.

 The Climate Council claims the economic toll of Victoria’s bushfire season is projected to more than double to $378 million by 2050, with the state bearing the brunt of Australia’s economic losses from bushfires.

The Climate Council’s Professor Tim Flannery said the increasing severity; frequency and the lengthening fire season will strain Victoria’s existing resources for fighting and managing fires.

“Victoria, as the state worst-affected by bushfires in Australia, is on the frontline of increasing bushfire risk due to climate change,” he said.

The report also found fire severity and intensity is expected to increase substantially in coming decades in Victoria. The fire season will continue to lengthen, further reducing the opportunities for safe hazard reduction burning.

But, the EMV is continuing to invest in programs including trialing the use of drones to bolster its bushfire programs. The drones can conduct assessments of the damage caused by bushfires and other emergencies such as floods and storms.

They can also take infra-red footage that helps firefighters determine whether structures or trees still contain heat and remain a fire threat, or whether flood levees have potential to be breached. A 3D camera can be used to produce 3D modelling of damaged structures for impact assessment.

Des Bahr, chairman of the National Safety Agency, said drones would assess the scene anywhere from just a few feet above the ground, to as high as 6000 feet.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the trial was about information integration.

‘’What we are out to do is to get airborne intelligence off the drones, so what cameras do we need to put on a drone, to do what jobs, and when that data is transmitted to the ground how do we influence decision-making in a timely way,’’ he said.

Mr Lapsley told The Courier  in December that fires could soon be fought in the middle of the night if a planned night vision program was brought to Ballarat in February. 

Creswick Fire Bridage Captain Robert Squires said any additional help ground crews could get from air crews would be essential during high fire danger periods.

He said air attack had helped crews control and stop a crop fire from spreading days before Christmas. 

“They’re tankers in the air, they can get there quicker than a lot of the brigades can.” With The Age.