What is a Pre Incident Planning (PIP)?

In simple terms, a PIP is local knowledge. Some of our members have lots of it and some have much less. The idea of a formal PIP document or other system is to share that local knowledge with the entire brigade, adjoining brigades and your fire control centre.

A PIP can be as simple or as comprehensive as needed to suit your brigade, brigade members and your local area. Preparing a PIP is a great way of discovering the hidden risks and assets in your response area.

Recent helicopter flights over some of the more rugged areas along the Murrumbidgee River showed a number of isolated buildings that might be occupied during firefighting operations.

Our Group Captains and Brigades often conduct field trips that could be described as Fire Trail PIPs. These trips are useful so that our field officers maintain a good level of local knowledge in an ever changing environment. (let's not get into fuel load and HR debates)

Brigades are encouraged to set up some type of method or system that shares local area knowledge with all of its members. Your PIP might be a simple list of property names, marks on a map and some record of the resources available at those locations or it might be a folder that is carried in each truck detailing all relevant details for each property.

Examples of the data might include:

1. Water points located at....
2. Private slip on firefighting unit located here
3. Property owner has a tractor with an under axle blade

Many Brigade Captains have water points with grid references recorded in a booklet (copies in each truck) others have used technology to capture details on their GPS. One of our Brigades is researching their local area and using Google Earth as a tool to record property information. They are planning to use this data to prepare a Brigade Map as part of their PIP.

Regardless of the system that you use, it is without doubt that local knowledge plays a major role in pre incident planning.

What does your Brigade do?

The Group Captains along with other volunteers, staff and NPWS conducted a field trip on Tuesday 8th December. The objectives for the day were to enter the Greymare Fire Trail from Happy Jacks Road and continue along the Greymare Fire Trail to Guthega Road. A number of detours were added to visit some of the famous "huts of the high country".

These trips provide a valuable insight into the condition of the fire trails along with an opportunity to inspect the fuel loads, fuel types and hazards that might be encountered during firefighting operations. Another valuable aspect of these outings (often overlooked) is the networking and social interaction that helps to build a strong team and the sharing of ideas from a wide range of experience.

The group rallied at the Berridale Fire Control Centre for a quick brief then set off for Eucumbene Cove where they caught up with Lex Suthern. Lex has been working on some fire mitigation projects at Eucumbene Cove, his work was inspected by the group before they headed into the National Park.

The group is briefed by Barry Aitchison

The next stop was the junction of the Greymare Fire Trail and Happy Jacks Road where a full brief was provided by Barry Aitchison.

Philip Reid and Darvall Dixon at Mackay's Hut

It wasn't too long before we needed to stop for a brew. This trip was an excellent opportunity to visit the many huts that can be accessed via the Greymare Fire Trail. The first hut that we visited was Mackay's Hut.

Wayne and Steve Mackay

As luck would have it, we had a few locals along who are connected to the early pioneers.

After a quick tea break and a few happy snaps we continued on to inspect the remainder of the trail and the many other fantastic huts. The huts that are close to the Greymare Fire Trail include:

1. Mackay's Hut
2. O'Keefes Hut
3. Greymare Hut
4. Valentine Hut
5. Whites River Hut and
6. Horse Camp Hut

Danny Barker checks out some old mining equipment

We stopped for lunch at Greymare Hut and took some time out to have a look at some of the old gold mining relics that had been abandoned from earlier times. One can only imagine the difficulty that the miners would have faced getting this equipment into such a remote location.

Danny visits Valentine Hut (The Love Shack)

Valentine Hut is a well appointed hut that was referred to as "The Love Shack". Danny Barker, our Operations Officer for the Bombala area was spotting entering the "Love Shack" with another unknown person (above).

During the trip, we reached a elevation of approx 1840m, travelled 62km along the Greymare Fire Trail (including hut detours) in approx 6 1/2 hours. The country was extremely dry and there was a noticeable lack of wildlife about.

It was commented that during the 2002 - 2003 fires, the Greymare Fire Trail was wet with a number of impassable boggy areas requiring trail work. Those same areas are now dry and a considerable amount of dust was being generated by the vehicles. The creeks and rivers were flowing with water but the general water levels and ground moisture were low.

We have created two new downloads that have been designed to assist our members find their way around the new PMR communication channels and voting groups.

Download One

Download one is a Region South channel sheet that has been modified for the Monaro Team, it started as a Region South channel sheet then was modified to assist our volunteers and staff.

This version includes:

1. A Region South channel sheet
2. A colour coded Monaro Team channel sheet (Bombala, Cooma and Snowy)
3. Voting groups for the Monaro Team (Bombala, Cooma, Snowy, North and South)
4. Portable repeater channels
5. Simplex frequencies
6. Strategic networks
7. Zones and channels that are available from a Group Captains or RFS staff vehicle (The red, yellow and blue radios)
8. A map that shows the Monaro Team PMR voting profile and tower locations

This Region South channel sheet is designed to be colour printed on both sides of an A4 sheet then laminated for use. Colour printing and laminating of this document is available to RFS members at the Cooma Fire Control Centre

Download Two

Download two is a small channel sheet for the Monaro Team.

It is designed for colour printing, cutting and laminating then used as a quick channel guide in a motor vehicle.

This guide fits nicely in the plastic sleeve under the visor of many vehicles.

The old channels that are listed on the left can be cut off if you don't want them or don't need them (they were included for the Snowy River district where these old numbers were widely used)

The Monaro Team Incident Worksheet project belongs to our Group Captains, version 2 was uploaded on Wednesday 4th November 2009 after discussions with some of our Group Captains and Operations Officers. It is anticipated that many changes will be made as we test the usefulness of this document over time.

Background Information

A request was made during a crew leader course that we make RFS Incident Worksheets available for training and operational purposes. The crew leader training manual features an image of an RFS Incident Worksheet on page 421.

The use of a structured worksheet for incident management is not mandatory and many of our Group Captains use notepads to record incident management activities.

I searched for a copy of the RFS Incident Worksheet but was unable to easily locate the version that is featured in the manual.

I then decided to reproduce a similar document that will be updated after receiving input from Group Captains, Captains and our Operations Officers.

This is a great opportunity to add the latest information fields to help us manage the new fire danger ratings and the three level message system.

The RFS Incident Worksheet has been produced in two downloadable formats.

A4 Format

The A4 format can be single or double side printed then stapled to make up the four page document. A number of these could be placed into a folder ready for use in the field.

A3 Format

The A3 format is designed to be double side printed onto an A3 sheet of paper then folded to form an A4 sized folded form.

Reviewing this Document

We have included a version control and date in the footer so that we can make changes to this document. We are keen to receive feedback from end users to ensure that this document is effective and helps you do your job.