Wildfire Training

Programs combine classroom learning, equipment familiarisation, field training, practical exercises, scenarios, assessment and facilitated debriefs. They run from two-day practical intensives through to residential programs exceeding two weeks.

Example training areas

Wildfire fundamentals

• Wildfire Awareness & Management
• Wildfire Fuels
• Wildfire Behaviour
• Crew Safety & LACES

Wildfire operations

• Wildfire Suppression — see the crew-level programs mapped to the national units Respond to Wildfire (PUAFIR204) and Suppress Wildfire (PUAFIR303)
• Pump & Drafting Operations
• Communications
• Mapping & Situational Awareness

Vehicles and plant

• 4WD Operations
• Vehicle Response & Recovery
• 4WD Tanker Operations
• Striker Operations
• Tractor & Slasher Operations
• POSI Operations

Technology and specialist capability

• Drone Management & Operations
• Aviation Awareness
• Thermal Imaging
• Operational Technology

Inside the crew safety induction

Before anyone steps onto a fireground, they complete a Bushfire Safety & Survival induction. It is a short, narrated module delivered on EMLearn with a knowledge check at the end, and it sets the minimum standard every crew member is held to. It covers seven areas:

1. Duty of care. Under work health and safety law, everyone on the fireground shares a duty of care to themselves and the people around them, across people, materials, equipment, work practices and the working environment.
2. Risk management. The four-step cycle of identifying the hazard, assessing the risk, controlling it and reviewing the controls, reduced to three words for the fireground: Aware, Assess, Address.
3. Protective clothing. The minimum dress standard for firefighting operations, from Level 1 trousers and tunic through to helmet and respiratory protection.
4. Fireground hazards. Smoke, falling limbs, radiant heat and poor visibility, and the habits that reduce each risk, including the four-times-flame-height rule for radiant heat.
5. Heat, fatigue and wellbeing. Recognising heat stress and dehydration under protective clothing, the signs of fatigue in yourself and others, and when to seek support after a traumatic event.
6. Situational awareness. LACES (Lookouts, Awareness, Communications, Escape routes, Safety zone) and the Dead Man Zone, the ground beside a fire edge that a wind change can burn through in under five minutes.
7. Survival and communication. What to do if caught on foot, in a vehicle or under an aircraft drop, and how incidents are run: the Incident Action Plan, sectors, SMEACS briefings, the emergency radio call and the debrief that closes every job.