The Victorian Association of Fire Investigators welcomes The Australasian Association of Fire Investigators Conference FEATURING PRESENTATION AND CASE STUDIES BY DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS November 7-9, 2018 Wednesday 7 - SPEAKERS 1. Les Vearing 2. Glenn Sharp 3. John Kelleher 4. Peter Leeson 5. Les Vearing Thursday 8 - INSTRUCTORS and MENTORS Les Vearing Glenn Sharp John Kelleher Fabian Crowe Mark Collin Brett Wagstaff Steve Attard Steve Carn Dinner Speaker: Dr (Detective Senior Sargent) Deb Bennett FBI Profiler Friday 9 - SPEAKERS 1. Rick Miller 2. Ian Burgwin 3. MFB 4. Ken Legat 5. Russell Lee Disclaimer: while it is the Associations full intent to conduct the programme as displayed, we reserve the rights to alter and/or change the program at any stage without notice. Any change may be due to weather and/or government authority requirements, this is due to the inherent risk involved in the activities that may be undertaken. If event conditions are required to be cancelled, conference lectures will be held with presenters from across Australasia. No discounts and/or refunds will be provided. Conference speakers may be substituted without notice.
CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE Day 1 Wednesday 7 Nov 2018 Day 2 Thursday 8 Nov 2018 11:00 ARRIVAL 11:50 LUNCH 12:30 OPENING 13:15 SPEAKER 1 13:45 SPEAKER 2 14:30 SPEAKER 3 15:10 BREAK 15:30 SPEAKER 4 16:10 SPEAKER 5 16:45 DAY CLOSE 17:00 VAFI - AGM 18:00 AGM CLOSE LES VEARING KILLER TREES GLENN SHARPE BUSHFIRE INVESTIGATION JOHN KELLEHER ARSON INVESTIGATION Afternoon tea PETER LEESON BUSHFIRE INVESTIGATION LES VEARING FIRE GROUND SAFETY 8:00 LOAD BUSES 8:15 BUSES LEAVE 9:15 ARRIVE CASTLEMAINE 9:20 SITE BRIEFING BREAK - MORNING TEA 10:00 SCENE - LIVE BURNS 11:00 SCENE 1 EXAMINATION 12:30 LUNCH 13:20 CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHS 13:30 SCENE 2 EXAMINATION 15:00 ASSEMBLE FOR DEPARTURE 15:20 BUSES LEAVE 16:30 ARRIVE BENDIGO FREE TIME 18:00 PRE-DINNER DRINKS 18:45 CONFERENCE DINNER 0:00 DINNER CLOSES BUSH FIRE INSTRUCTORS Les Vearing Glenn Sharp Fabian Crowe John Kelleher Mark Collins Brett Wagstaff MENTORS Steve Attard Steve Carn Day 3 Friday 9 Nov 2018 8:00 BREAKFAST 8:30 PRESENTOR -F1 9:00 PRESENTOR - F2 RICK MILLER BUSHFIRE INVESTIGATION IAN BURGWIN ELECTRICAL INFRUSTRUCTURE 9:45 PRESENTOR - F3 MFB DRONES 10:00 BREAK MORNING TEA 10:15 PRESENTOR -F4 KEN LEGAT SOCIAL MEDIA 11:00 PRESENTOR -F5 RUSSELL LEE ELECTRICAL IGNITION 11:45 CLOSING 12:15 LUNCH
Les Vearing CONFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES Fire Accreditations Level 3 Incident Controller Operations Officer Level 3 Safety Officer Air Attack Supervisor Bushfire Investigator Burn OIC Education Certificate of Applied Science in Conservation and Resource Development Certificate 1V in Workplace Training and Assessment Current role and previous employment Commenced with Forest Commission of Victoria in 1979 on a fire crew. Became permanent in 1980. Has worked in Forest and/or Fire Management ever since but the name of the Department he works for has changed many times since then. Has been a Bushfire Investigator since the early 1990 s and has been employed by the Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning as the State Fire Investigation Coordinator since February 2009. His current role includes coordinating fire investigations across the State, assisting with major investigations, investigating serious OH&S incidents, training and mentoring new Bushfire Investigators (FFMV, CFA, MFB and VicPol), court appearances as an expert witness and assisting other staff with court appearances. Les is a volunteer Bushfire Investigator with CFA and has investigated over 200 bushfires between the two agencies. He is also involved in running fire training courses such as, Sector Commander, Operations Officer, Crew Leader, Vehicle Mounted Driptorch, and Safety Officer. Fire Experience Attended over 1000 bushfires or Planned Burns in many different roles Achievements Australian Fire Service Medal (for service in the fire management) Municipal Citizen of the year (for service to the community)
Glenn Sharp CONFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES Current role and previous employment: Glenn first started in 1997 as a Forest Management Officer with the then Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria. At this time he became trained as a bushfire fire fighter, attending many planned burns and bushfire campaigns, but also shadowed bushfire investigators, soon becoming trained and later accredited later in that season. Since 1999, Glenn became full time as a Fisheries and Wildlife Officer, and other forms of the title and until today, in his current role as the Operations Manager for state-wide investigations into the illegal possession and trade of wildlife and other environmental crimes for the now Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). During this time, Glenn has maintained his role as a fire investigator, attending many fires from small roadside fires to larger bushfires. Glenn assists in the delivery of fire investigation training and mentoring of new bushfire investigators from FFMV, CFA, MFB and Victoria Police. Fire Accreditations: Operations Officer Level 1 Bushfire Investigator Wildlife Welfare Officer Wildlife Field Operations Coordinator OHS Investigator Education: Bachelor of Science, Park Management Diploma in Government, Investigations Certificate IV Management Fire Experience: Attended over 200 bushfires or Planned Burns in suppression or investigative roles.
John Desmond Kelleher 3. Summary of Employment 1983-1988: Explosives Branch, Department of Labor 1989-1992: State Forensic Science Laboratory. 1. Academic Qualifications: Bachelor of Applied Science 1982 (Distinction) Major studies in Chemistry and Physics Bachelor of Arts 1985 Major in Mathematics Monash University Gippsland 2. Professional Associations: Member, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, Member, Australian Institute of Physics, Victorian Association of Fire Investigators, International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators 1992-2018 State Forensic Science Laboratory/ Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre Section Head/Team Leader, Fire and Explosion Investigation 1992-2011, act as Scientific Adviser for major investigations 5. Scene Examinations/ Cases Completed Approximately 4800 fire and explosion scenes investigated or assistance provided. These have included cases from all Australian States and Territories, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Fiji.
Peter Leeson Queensland born and bred, gained a Forestry Degree at Canberra in 1979 and worked with Queensland Department of Forestry and subsequent departmental restructures since 1980, and restructured into Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service since 2002. Since 1996, developed an increasing District specialisation in fire management. Became Southern Regional Fire Coordinator 2006, and with the State Fire Team from 2008 with a role mainly in inter-agency and inter- State liaison, operational development, and fire training. Commenced fire investigating in 1994, and been an active investigator since, with a particular interest in incident analysis to improve operational practices and firefighter safety. With Fabian Crowe, delivered fire investigation training for Queensland agencies since 1999. Currently an agency representative for AFAC Rural Land Management Group, Forest Fire Management Group, SE Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium steering committee, and Queensland fire agencies Interdepartmental Committee Arson and Fire Prevention Group. Bushfire investigation, for either determination of the cause or examination of an event, may sometimes involve fire that has initially burned undetected some time ago (days to weeks), or has burned over multiple days, involved a reburn, or has other similar complexity. In these cases, the date of the fire at a specific location may be unknown and require confirmation, or complex overlapping fire may require a sequential separation. This presentation uses observation records from a large multiple fire study to demonstrate a technique and potential indicators of fire aging in south east Queensland forests, to enable time since recent fire to be estimated, or enable multiple overlapping fires to be identified and separated. Common fire recovery studies look at recovery patterns over 6 to 12 months and subsequent years. This method of fire aging uses very short term fire severity effects and recovery patterns to determine fire age from 1 day to several weeks. The reliability of particular aging indicators and the influence of season and weather is discussed. The method is used frequently in local investigations, some examples of its use will be presented, and has potential for use elsewhere with some calibration for local species and recovery rates.
Fabian Crowe Burning Issues Bushfire Training and Consultancy Services Fabian was first introduced to bushfire investigations in 1992 when asked to provide assistance to Les Vearing in investigating a series of deliberately lit fires south of Castlemaine. Between Les, Fabian and the local police they were able to catch the person responsible and mount a successful prosecution. Following a Study Tour in the US and Canada in 1994, Fabian developed a Bushfire Investigations Training Course. This course was delivered by Fabian in each of the States and Territories in Australia and in New Zealand throughout the nineties and in the following decade. The learning outcomes, format and content of this course continue to be the essence of what are now the national training and accreditation standards. In 2009 Fabian led the Fire Investigation Team assisting the Phoenix Task Force with respect to the Kilmore/Kinglake and the Murrindindi/Marysville fires on Black Saturday. Fabian s evidence was cited eighteen times in the Royal Commission s Report relating to the Kilmore/Kinglake event and was subject to some rigorous examination by Counsel in the subsequent civil litigation which followed both fires. Since retirement in 2013, Fabian has continued to assist both at the Victorian training courses which are conducted in Castlemaine each year and on the job at bushfire sites when required. He has also been engaged by several different legal firms from South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria to provide expert evidence in Supreme Court matters involving significant bushfire events in those States including the fires on St Patrick sday this year fires in Western Victoria.
Rick Miller In 34 years as a volunteer in the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, I have held the positions of Acting Group Captain, Senior Deputy Captain, and Deputy Captain and have attended hundreds of fires in the role of Divisional Commander, Sector Leader, Incident Controller, Crew Leader and Fire fighter. Major fires include emergency declarations in the Blue Mountains in 1994, 1997 and 2001 and the Canberra Fires of 2003. I am an Authorised Fire Investigator with the NSW Rural Fire Service and am currently attached to the Central Coast Rural Fire District. Since my training and appointment by the RFS in 2005/6, I have undertaken over 634 fire investigations as the Primary Investigator; 540 of them into wildfires, 94 into fires involving structures and given evidence as an Expert Witness in both the NSW District and Local Courts. In 2015 I was awarded the Commissioner s Commendation for Service by the NSW RFS. Lessons from the Investigation into the Catherine Hill Bay Fire of 2013 and into other fires caused by the activities of a serial fire lighter. The Catherine Hill Bay fire (CHB) occurred on 17/10/2013 but was in fact a re-ignition of an earlier fire that had been lit by a serial fire lighter at his workplace nearby, 17 days earlier. As a result of the time gap and the site of the reignition, the investigation was complex and will be illustrative to many fire investigators. During the fire a resident died from a heart attack while defending his property. In all the fire destroyed three properties in the heritage listed mining town of Catherine Hill Bay, a nearby service station and restaurant, and also damaged several other properties including an historic jetty. At the height of the fire 63 appliances, 2 x aircraft and approximately 200 personnel from FRNSW, NPWS and NSWRFS were deployed. Prior to the fire and over a 12month period my investigative partner, Stuart Farleigh, and I attributed 25 fire incidents to the serial fire lighter. He subsequently admitted to lighting 17 of these. Initially he pleaded not guilty to lighting the fire at his workplace and the later re-ignition that produced the Catherine Hill Bay Fire. The situation was complicated by an incorrect media report that he had admitted guilt. As a result a jury trial was aborted. After a period of further Discovery he admitted to lighting the fire at his workplace but disputed that the Catherine Hill Bay Fire was the result of a reignition. Over 12months later, a hearing of disputed facts was held by a Judge in the District Court and he was found guilty and sentenced to 8 years in gaol on top of the two years given for lighting the fires that he had already admitted to. He was one of the few fire lighters who I have helped identify, who was also a member of a firefighting service, in this case the NSW Rural Fire Service. The process of identifying him taught me several lessons and will also be instructive to many investigators.
Ian Burgwin CONFERENCE BIOGRAPHIES General Manager, Electrical Safety and Technical Regulation Ian is now accountable for the regulation of electrical infrastructure, installations and equipment safety across Victoria. He has been with ESV for just over 3½ years. Before then he has worked in various roles in electrical transmission infrastructure, high voltage direct current, submarine cable engineering, consulting and business leadership positions in Australia, New Zealand, Zambia and the UK. He also consulted to industry for four years. During his four years in New Zealand he was a member of the National Engineering Lifelines Committee responsible for the development of infrastructure resilience, particularly during major disasters such as earthquakes. Synopsis The Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission of 2009 made a number of recommendations to be carried forward by the electricity distribution businesses and overseen by ESV in an effort to reduce the probability of electricity assets starting bushfires. This presentation will show how the recommendations became practical programmes of work and discuss their progress to date; these programmes are not scheduled to finish until 2023. The presentation will explain the deployment of the Rapid Earth Fault Current Limiter (REFCL) and how it is expected to break the strong correlation between bushfire start (due to electricity assets) and the weather. This is leading edge work where this technology has never been deployed in an effort to address bushfire starts anywhere in the World.
Russell Lee Russell Lee commenced his working career in 1957 as a cadet engineer in the Victorian Railways, qualifying as an electrical and mechanical railway signalling engineer in 1961. He left the railways in 1964 and worked for some years in large industrial and contracting companies doing electrical services and switchboard design, manufacturing design, contract engineering and project engineering work. In 1971, he joined the leading Australian and international consulting engineering firm of Rankine and Hill as a senior electrical project engineer, and was subsequently chief electrical engineer. He was elected an equity partner in 1978. In 1985 he left Rankine and Hill to start his own practice as a forensic consulting engineer. He investigated and reported on the origin and cause of electrical and mechanical failures and accidents, on fires and explosions, and on electric shock and electrocution. His practice extended throughout Australia and New Zealand, Europe, South-east Asia and the Pacific. He retired in 2015. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and a member of its Electrical and Mechanical colleges, and a Life member of VAFI. He holds a Diploma of Electrical Engineering from Swinburne College of Technology, a Graduate Certificate of Engineering, a Graduate Certificate in Fire Investigation from Charles Sturt University and a Masters Degree in Technology, with Mechanical and Electrical majors, from Deakin University. Russell has addressed many seminars and conferences both in Australia and overseas, where his experiences in determining the origin and cause of failures, fires, and accidents have been of great interest to fire investigators, risk and maintenance engineers, tradespeople, electrical and mechanical engineers and the general public.
Ken Legat Since 2012, Ken Legat has been the Investigator Principle of Fire Investigation Services Limited, Christchurch, NZ. Ken had a 35-year career in the New Zealand Police. He worked on the Christchurch Arson Squad and was the Fire Investigation Co-ordinator for Canterbury CIB, becoming a national Police resource to consultant on investigations and fire investigation training. Ken retired to join IAG to undertake fire origin and cause investigations, subsequently he established his own company specialising in fire investigation. Ken trained with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms in Georgia, USA, and the Melbourne Fire and Emergency Service, Fire Investigation and Analysis Unit. He is one of only two CFI qualified fire investigators in New Zealand and has an Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Fire Investigation) from the Canberra Institute of Technology.A consuming portion of his work during 2017/18 is the Christchurch Port Hills fires. Considered by many the first Australian Style wild fires in the South Island of New Zealand. Synopsis of Presentation: The people of Christchurch view the Southern Alps to the west and the Port Hills to the east as iconic play grounds. On the 13th of February 2017 two fires started and joine on the Port Hills. A helicopter pilot was killed fighting the fire, numerous properties were destroyed and hundreds were evacuated. Fire Investigation Services were engaged to be involved. There was clearly a need to engage with the population and ask for assistance of those with potential information, photos and videos, we actively monitored and guided aspects of social media discussion. Facebook, YouTube and Neighbourly became key tools. These avenues would turn up some of the most significant witnesses, photos and videos. A relationship with a very well-known radio personality and using his widely followed Facebook page, while also actively searching for and joining discussions, helped to quickly collect information. During the first weeks of the investigation, Fire Investigation Services company Facebook and website visits went from a handful to thousands of visits a week. People felt ownership of the situation. They wanted to assist with the investigation. The collection of information and visual evidence would have been far more labour intensive and we would have missed out on the little gems of information that became so important to the investigation without social media. The fire was officially declared extinguished on 20th April 2017.