Scion Rural Fire Research Group
Activities for October 2012 - February 2013
Theme 1: Managing emerging risks to NZ’s fire hazardscape
Enhance risk assessment tools that account for the effects of changing climate,
land-use and demographics on potential fire impact, by incorporating fire danger
rating knowledge and emerging risks to better inform fire management strategies.
Theme leader: Grant Pearce
Grant.Pearce@scionresearch.com
Fire behaviour tools updates
Improved fuel load and fire spread models for NZ fuel types have been incorporated into the fire behaviour
prediction tools currently being used operationally by Rural Fire Authorities across the country. These include
updated versions of the paper-based fire behaviour field manual and Toolkit calculator software. Changes
are also currently being implemented into the Prometheus fire growth simulation software by the Canadian
developers.
Smartphone Apps
A version of the Toolkit fire behaviour calculator for smartphone devices has also been developed, with an
Android version completed and another for Apple devices being finalised (the beta-version is currently being
tested). As well as providing an additional tool for fire managers, the smartphone fire behaviour calculator
could also enable farmers and landowners to determine fire behaviour potential more accurately, thereby
minimising the chances of fire escapes from burn-offs.
NZ Seasonal Fire Potential Assessment
Scion’s fire team led the production of a NZ Seasonal Fire Potential Assessment for the 2012/13 fire season.
Grant Pearce and Veronica Clifford participated in a national workshop (held on 8 Nov.) along with the
National Rural Fire Authority, NIWA and fire managers to collate information on current and predicted
conditions in different parts of the country. They then coordinated the production of a written summary
used to inform fire managers, the media and general public on fire weather potential over the coming
summer. They also participated in a follow-up meeting (23 Jan.) to review changes in seasonal conditions in
many parts of the country together with the latest NIWA seasonal climate outlooks. This resulted in
production of an updated Seasonal Assessment report for the Jan-Mar. 2013 period.
Fire Weather System
Scion is a sub-contractor to NIWA in the development of a new national Fire Weather System (FWSYS) based
around NIWA’s EcoConnect climate forecasting platform, with a role in advising on technical and end-user
requirements, as well as assisting in technology transfer and training.
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The new FWSYS prototype was demonstrated to fire end-users at Greta Point, Wellington on 17 Oct. A
NIWA-led training session was also held for end-user project team members on 7 Nov. The beta-version of
the new FWSYS was then released to fire managers at the beginning of Dec., and is now being trialled by fire
managers over the summer fire season.
Wilding fire hazard
Research was also initiated into the fire hazard associated with wilding pines, following the success of a
funding bid to the NZ Fire Service Commission’s Contestable Research Fund. Visits were undertaken to a
number of possible research sites, including Mid Dome in Southland, where there is potential to undertake
experimental fires to quantify fire behaviour in wildings, as well as to investigate the role of fire in wilding
control with and without chemical treatments.
A literature review has been drafted and work also commenced on quantifying the current and potential
future extent of wildings, and reviewing available international models for predicting fuel loads and rate of
spread in this important new fuel type.
Transition of gorse and broom to native forest
Scion’s fire team is a subcontractor to Landcare Research in this project, assisting with scrub field sampling
(in Feb/Mar. 2013) and developing a relationship for predicting gorse height (and therefore biomass, using
existing models) from scrub age determined from stem growth-ring counts. Summer student Oliver CorichHermans has been employed to assist with this work. Oliver is a 4th-year Forestry student, who will also help
with updating of the fire climatology database and other fire team activities.
Grant and Oliver identified a number of field sites for the scrub age/height work in Canterbury, and have now
completed field sampling at these sites. They are also working with Landcare staff to undertake more
detailed vegetation regeneration assessments and biomass sampling at gorse and broom sites across the
country covering a range of environmental (climate, soils, productivity) gradients.
Recent Outputs:
NRFA, Scion & NIWA. 2012. New Zealand Seasonal
Wildfire Assessment 2012-13 Summary. National Rural
Fire Authority, Wellington, Scion, Rural Fire Research
Group, Christchurch and National Institute of Water &
Atmospheric Research, Wellington (in association with
NZ Fire Service, Department of Conservation, and
Regional Rural Fire Coordinating Committees). Issued
November 2012. 5 p.
Pearce, G. 2012. Comparing seasonal fire climate
severity. Presentation to the 2012-13 Seasonal Wildfire
Assessment Workshop, Wellington.
Pearce, H.G. 2012. Updated descriptions of New
Zealand’s current and future fire climate. In: Abstracts,
Meteorological Society of New Zealand Annual
Conference, 19-20 November 2012, Wellington. [also
online at: www.metsoc.org.nz]
NRFA, Scion & NIWA. 2013. New Zealand Seasonal
Wildfire Assessment 2012-13 Summary (January 2013
update). National Rural Fire Authority, Wellington,
Scion, Rural Fire Research Group, Christchurch and
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research,
Wellington (in association with NZ Fire Service,
Department of Conservation, and Regional Rural Fire
Coordinating Committees). Issued February 2013. 6 p.
Pearce, H.G. 2012. Describing New Zealand’s current
fire climate severity. Poster presented at the
Meteorological Society of New Zealand Annual
Conference, 19-20 November 2012, Wellington.
Pearce, H.G. 2012. Effect of climate change on New
Zealand’s future fire danger. Poster presented at the
Meteorological Society of New Zealand Annual
Conference, 19-20 November 2012, Wellington.
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Pearce, H.G.; Anderson, S.A.J.; Clifford, V.R. 2012. A
Manual for Predicting Fire Behaviour in New Zealand
Fuels. Second edition. Scion Rural Fire Research Group,
Christchurch. September 2012. (version 2)
Simpson, C.C.; Pearce, H.G.; Sturman, A.P.; Zawar-Reza,
P. (submitted). Verification of WRF modelling of fire
weather conditions for the 2009/10 New Zealand fire
season. Submitted to International Journal of Wildland
Fire, September 2012.
Scion. 2012. New Zealand Fire Behaviour Toolkit, v2.0.
Software package. Available online at:
www.scionresearch.com/fire
Simpson, C.C.; Pearce, H.G.; Sturman, A.P.; Zawar-Reza,
P. (submitted). Behaviour and utility of fire weather
indices in the 2009/10 New Zealand fire season.
Submitted to International Journal of Wildland Fire,
October 2012.
Scion. 2012. Fire research gets the Gen-Y touch. Scion,
Rotorua. Scion Footnotes newsletter, Issue 1220 (25
October 2012): 1.
Simpson, C.C.; Sturman, A.P.; Zawar-Reza, P.; Pearce,
H.G. 2012. WRF simulation of a strong foehn wind
event in New Zealand on 6 February 2011. Abstract
submitted for presentation at the Australian
Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS)
National Conference 2013, 11-13 February 2013,
Melbourne.
Scion. 2012. Fighting rural fires with smartphones.
Scion, Rotorua. Scion Connections newsletter, Issue 6
(December 2012). pp 3.
Pearce, H.G.; Clifford, V.R. 2013. Fire behaviour
prediction tools for fire managers – lessons learned
from tools development in New Zealand. Paper
presented at the 4th Fuels & Fire Behaviour
Conference, "At the Crossroads: Looking Toward the
Future in a Changing Environment", 18-22 February
2013, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
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Theme 2 - Enhanced community resilience
Enhance community awareness and understanding of rural fire risk to improve
at-risk communities’ readiness to respond to, and recover from, rural fire
events.
Theme leader: Lisa Langer
Lisa.Langer@scionresearch.com
Effective Communication project
A successful funding proposal was submitted to the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (BFCRC) to
undertake a series of NZ case studies as part of the BFCRC’s “Effective communication” project. This research
aims to develop an improved understanding of the effectiveness of rural fire communications in raising
awareness of wildfire risk, and to identify the most appropriate engagement and education strategies for
increasing community wildfire preparedness and resilience.
This research is currently underway, with interviews of fire managers and community members having now
been completed in three previously fire-affected communities – Atawhai, Nelson (rural/urban interface study
area); Closeburn near Queenstown (tree-change/tourist); and Wairoa on the East Coast (traditional
farming/rural).
Lisa Langer completed further national key respondent interviews for the project, bringing the total number
of interview/focus group participants to 78. Contractor Mary Hart has also now completed transcribing all
interviews/focus groups from the 3 case studies. These will now be analysed to identify key findings.
Tranzfor exchange
Lisa Langer spent a valuable three weeks in Portugal at the Centre of Applied Ecology, Superior Institute of
Agronomy, Technical University of Lisbon. She collaborated with Maria Colaco to bring Portuguese-NZ
collaboration to the Effective Communication programme with the assistance of the Tranzfor programme
(Maria had previously visited NZ under this Tranzfor scheme). Lisa presented a seminar to the Centres of
Forestry Studies and Applied Ecology which was well received.
Lisa also visited the Centre Bordeaux Aquitaine, National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in France,
and presented a seminar on “Bringing social perspectives into sustainable forest and rural land management
in New Zealand”. The seminar generated much discussion and an environmental sociologist from IRSTEA
(National Research Institute of science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture) is keen to come to
NZ to work with Lisa on wildfire risk.
Australian Bushfires
Lisa Langer was invited by the Bushfire CRC to be involved in a research response task force in NSW to
interview members of the community who have been affected by the recent devastating bushfires. While
she was unable to participate for 2-3 weeks during February, she has indicated that she may be available for
future events. In addition, Lisa also nominated contractor, Mary Hart as a potential research task force
member to allow Scion to make a contribution and to gain access to the research data.
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Recent Outputs:
Jakes, P.J.; Langer, E.R. 2012. The adaptive capacity of
New Zealand communities to wildfire. International
Journal of Wildland Fire 21(6): 764-772.
Stoof, C.R.; Langer, E.R.; McMorrow, J.; Oswald, B.
2012. WILDFIREWorld Online: Global wildfire
awareness. International Association of Wildland Fire,
Chicago, Illinois, USA. Wildfire magazine,
September/October 2012: 12.
Hart, M.; Langer, E.R. 2012. Community resilience
summary. Scion, Rural Fire Research group,
Christchurch. Unpublished Report No. 19144, May
2012. 19 p. [Literature review summarising published
literature on rural community resilience and selfreliance in natural hazards and implications for fire
safety and emergency response as baseline for future
research direction
Langer, E.R. 2012. Community resilience: Scion social
fire research, New Zealand. Centre of Forestry
Studies/Centre of Applied Ecology Seminar, Superior
Institute of Agronomy, Technical University of Lisbon,
Portugal, 10 October 2012.
Langer, E.R. 2012. Bringing social perspectives into
sustainable forest and rural land management in New
Zealand. Seminar presented at Centre Bordeaux
Aquitaine, National Institute for Agricultural research
(INRA), France, 18 October 2012.
Stoof, C.R.; Oswald, B.; Langer, E.R.; Schuijn, M.;
McMorrow, J.; Getz-Smeenk, A.; Stalenhoef, E. 2012.
Different risks, different solutions? A discussion on
what traditionally fire prone and less fire-prone
countries can learn from each other. In: Proceedings of
the 3rd Human Dimensions of Wildland Fires
Conference, 17-19 April 2012, Seattle, Washington,
USA. Published by the International Association of
Wildland Fire, Missoula, Montana, USA. pp 135-137.
(Extended abstract).
Langer, E.R.; Hide, S.; Pearce, H.G. 2012. Do rural fire
danger warnings lead to appropriate behaviour by the
New Zealand public? In: Proceedings of the 3rd Human
Dimensions of Wildland Fires Conference, 17-19 April
2012, Seattle, Washington, USA. pp. 91-93.
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Theme 3 - Use of fire as a land management tool
Develop knowledge and tools to support the safe and effective use of fire as a
land management tool while ensuring protection of important biodiversity values
and vulnerable ecosystems from both wildfires and land management burning.
Theme leader: Veronica Clifford
Veronica.Clifford@scionresearch.com
Fire as a land management tool project
Karen Bayne and Brenda Baillie have completed the pilot trial of approximately 20 targeted interviews to
understand and identify the risks and benefits of using fire as a land management tool in NZ’s rural
landscape. These interviews are an important step in understanding the perceptions around using fire as a
land management tool, and were a key milestone for the fire team’s additional MBIE funding and ongoing
research programme in this area.
Findings from these interviews have been used to help design a national survey to establish the extent of
these perceptions and practices across the country on use of fire as a management tool, along with
identifying knowledge gaps for future research. This broader national survey will be sent out for completion
in coming months. Veronica Clifford is also currently working on a literature review to identify knowledge
gaps and evidence to back up people’s perceptions on using fire as a tool, and of the effects of fire on NZ
ecosystems.
Maori use of fire
Lisa Langer was successful in gaining a Scion Māori research internship for a project investigating Māori
traditional and present use of fire. The 12-week internship commenced in early December to study Māori
and their use and perceptions of fire in rural areas. Māori intern student Grace Stone has conducted
interviews with a number of Māori in the Central North Island, including the Ureweras, on traditional views
and uses of fire, and is preparing a report on her findings.
Smoke plume research
Tara Strand travelled to Niceville, Florida during Oct/Nov. to participate on the Rx (Prescription burn) CADRE
(Combustion-Atmospheric Dynamics Research Experiments) field campaign where she led the USFS AirFire
team to collect data on smoke plume particulate concentrations, plume rise, and cloud formation due to the
presence of fire. This Rx CADRE field project was funded by the US Joint Fire Science Program, the primary
funding source for fire and smoke research in the US. The Rx CADRE was an 11-day field study on Eglin Air
Force Base, during which a total of 6 small grass burns, 2 large grass burns and 1 surface fuel burn under a
forest canopy (no canopy ignition) were completed.
A University of Canterbury Electrical Engineering student has been working on developing a measurement
system along a kite string to quantify atmospheric conditions associated with fire smoke column
development. A prototype of this kite instrumentation ensemble was demonstrated in early Feb. The kite
reached heights of about 200 m and had 2 prototype instruments attached that measured the vector wind,
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temperature, and relative humidity. The prototype shows potential for application over research burns,
where it can fly up to several kilometres above the fire and obtain simultaneous measurements of wind and
smoke plume concentrations in a vertical profile. This type of dataset has never been obtained near or over a
fire before.
BlueSky smoke modelling
The potential to use the USFS BlueSky Smoke Modelling Framework to model and predict smoke dispersion
in NZ is being investigated by Scion fire team member Tara Strand. Interest has also been expressed from
Australia in using the BlueSky Framework there as well. Data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology was
sent to Tara Strand for use in testing the USFS BlueSky Smoke Modelling Framework for use in Australia. The
Margaret River Fire, a prescription burn that escaped near wine country in south-western Australia, will be
used as a test case. Grant Pearce, Veronica Clifford, and Tara Strand toured this fire area after the AFAC/CRC
conference in Perth in August 2012.
Tara has also been working with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, who have obtained funds to
modify/develop a version of BlueSky for Australia. Opportunities to collaborate in the development of a
BlueSky version for the Southern Hemisphere are therefore being investigated.
Recent Outputs:
Bayne, K.; Baillie, B.; Clifford, V.; Pearce, G. 2012. Fire
as a land management tool: pilot interviews. Scion,
Rural Fire Research Group. Unpublished Report (No.
19328). 11 p + appendices.
Strand, T.; Rorig, M.; Lamb, B.; Cruz-Chercon, V.;
Thistle, H. Mickler, B.; Clements, C.; Seto, D.; Bian, X.;
Solomon, R.; Larkin, N. 2013. Evaluating models for low
intensity wildland burning using comprehensive
observations from four prescribed fires. Paper
presented at the 4th Fuels & Fire Behaviour
Conference, "At the Crossroads: Looking Toward the
Future in a Changing Environment", 18-22 February
2013, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Strand, T.; Kepert, J.; McCaw, L.; Fawcett, R.; Meyer,
M.; Pearce, G.; Clifford, V.; Larkin, N. 2013. Smoke
management in Australia and New Zealand: application
of the BlueSky Modelling Framework. Poster presented
at the 4th Fuels & Fire Behaviour Conference, "At the
Crossroads: Looking Toward the Future in a Changing
Environment", 18-22 February 2013, Raleigh, North
Carolina, USA.
Goodrick, S.; Achtemeier, G.; Larkin, N.; Liu, Y; Strand,
T. 2013. Modeling smoke transport from wildland
fires: a review. International Journal of Wildland Fire
22(1): 83-94.
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Theme 4 - Improving safety and capacity in the rural fire
workforce
Develop tools and best practice guidelines to maximise the safety and productivity
of the workforce.
Theme leader: Richard Parker
Richard.Parker@scionresearch.com
Deep Smarts project
Veronica Clifford and US Deep Smarts expert Dave Thomas completed a total of 16 interviews with
experienced NZ fire personnel across the country between 31 October & 11 November, including conducting
interviews in Christchurch, Rotorua & Wellington. This work aims to capture NZ fire managers’ knowledge
and lessons learned from defining events during their fire fighting careers so that these can be passed on to
new fire managers. It is planned to development of a website containing video clips from these Deep Smarts
interviews together with other fire lessons learned information, as a training and information resource for NZ
firefighters and fire managers.
Future technologies
A report outlining the potential associated with the use of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at rural fires
has been completed. This review highlighted that while there are a huge range of potential fire applications
for either rotary or fixed-wing UAVs, there are also a number of operational limitations. At present, the most
promising application would appear to be their use in identifying and locating fire “hotspots” requiring
extinguishment, in combination with an onboard infra-red camera. The research team are further
investigating this potential, with the aim of trialling a UAV at an experimental burn &/or wildfire.
Richard Parker was also invited to a presentation of technologies at the Human Interface Technology centre
(‘HIT Lab’) at University of Canterbury (23 Nov). This was a function hosting scientists and technology
businesses in Christchurch. It was an opportunity to see the capabilities of the HIT Lab, and meet with
scientists and technology businesses.
Tait Communications sponsored a Summer Student, Alice Kennedy, from Massey University’s School of
Industrial Design in Wellington, to investigate the design and ergonomics of electronic data displays for use
in high-stress environments. She worked with the Scion fire team to understand the data requirements of
rural fire managers, and followed this up with interviews with several fire managers. She identified several
areas for possible future development, including fire equipment inventory and systems, automatic digital fire
logs, and GPS tracking of fireground fire suppression resources. Her work compliments the firefighter
productivity, and health and safety research Scion is undertaking.
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Fire Danger Rating smartphone app
Tait Communications and University of Canterbury Computer Science Department sponsored another
Summer Student to write a smartphone android application to access rural fire danger information. The
application would enable a member of the public to find out what the fire danger is at their current location
based on the GPS data from their smartphone. This would then provide guidance on what the ‘fire danger
rating’ actually means, and could potentially also link to additional information on current fire season status
and fire permit requirements. Tait Communications summer student Greg Signal has completed a beta
prototype of this fire danger smartphone app, which has been circulated to rural fire managers around the
country for feedback.
Forest fire ignition causes
The Fire Team have been discussing with forest harvesting staff the need for more research on forest fire
causes. Initially, this would focus on the conditions under which fires start in NZ fuels from chainsaws, wire
ropes and hauler tail blocks. There has been an enthusiastic response from forestry personnel and the
research team is investigating how it can build this work into the research programme.


Recent Outputs:
Parker, R. 2012. Work plan: Aerial fire suppression
resource productivity and effectiveness (J60032). Scion,
Rural Fire Research Group, Christchurch. Scion Internal
Report (Workplan No. 03895), June 2012. 4 p. [update
of 2011 draft workplan]
Clifford, V.; Pearce, G. 2012. Workplan: Deep Smarts
for New Zealand fire management (J60033). Scion,
Rural Fire Research Group, Christchurch. Scion Internal
Report (Workplan No. 03929), August 2012. 8 p.
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Other News
Awards
The Fire Team won the Scion ‘Customer Engagement Award’ for 2012. The award recognises the enormous
effort that the team puts into engagement with the many ‘customers’ of our services. These range from DOC,
Forest Owners, NZ Fire Service, National Rural Fire Authority, NZ Defence and Local Government, to
Federated Farmers and individuals.
The Fire Team also achieved a Gold rating for our MBIE programme Annual Report, meaning the contract is
performing above expectation. This was the only Gold rating awarded in Scion, and one of only 23 awarded
across more than 300 MBIE contracts.
International visitors
The Fire team hosted a number of international visitors during late October/November. These included Deep
Smarts expert, Dave Thomas from the US; David Taylor, Fire Management Planning Officer from Tasmania
Parks and Wildlife Service; and Tranzfor visitor Prof Andy Moffat, Head of the Centre for Forestry and Climate
Change at Forest Research UK.
Veronica Clifford hosted Tasmanian fire manager, David Taylor from 12-21 November. He was here to view
NZ fuel types to determine the suitability for using NZ fire behaviour models in similar Tasmania fuel types,
and to review software tools (including the NZ Wildfire Threat Analysis System and Prometheus fire growth
simulator) for use in Tasmania.
Grant Pearce hosted Tranzfor exchangee, Prof Andy Moffat, from Forest UK from 17 November – 15
December. He is reviewing NZ’s fire risk assessment systems for their relevance to the UK, and NZ forestry’s
climate change mitigation and adaptation activities. During a trip to Wellington (to attend the MetSocNZ
conference), Andy also met with the NIWA and MetService researchers to discuss weather/climate
forecasting and climate change science, the National Rural Fire Authority (Gary Lockyer) & DOC (Dave Hunt)
on fire risk assessment systems, and NZ Forest Owners Association (Glen Mackie) on forestry fire risk and
climate change adaptation activities.
Dave Thomas & Veronica conducted interviews with fire managers as part of the NZ Deep Smarts project to
document their skills and expertise during 31 October & 11 November. Dave also gave several presentations
on the Deep Smarts work as well as other fire human factors research to firefighters in Christchurch and
Wellington.
Future research
The Rural Fire Group submitted an entry, identifying our affiliation to Scion, for the MBIE National Science
Challenges. The submission was based around fire as an example for improving resilience to natural hazards.
This was in addition to the main Scion submission. This emphasised that fire can be both a damaging hazard
as well as a tool for productive land use (i.e. clearing weed plants).
The Fire team submitted two Expressions of Interest to the NZ Fire Service Commission’s 2012/13
Contestable Research Fund round. Both of these were successful in making it through the first stage, and
more detailed proposals were prepared for each of the two projects that were submitted in early February.
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These proposals were:
 “What is the minimum fitness standard for rural fire volunteers?” – this will determine the uptake of
the current optional national fitness guidelines for volunteer rural firefighters and compare fitness
requirements with actual firefighting tasks; research in Australia indicates a poor fit between fitness
tests based on walking with actual firefighting tasks which are predominantly tanker-based.
 “Defining wildfire prone areas in the NZ context” – development of a methodology for defining
wildfire prone areas, by identifying the biophysical and social factors contributing to wildfire risk,
developing a method for spatially describing Wildfire Prone Areas using the identified factors, and
conducting a pilot study to demonstrate and evaluate the methodology.
Outside of Scion rural fire research
Industry
Veronica Clifford completed a 10-day secondment with the Department of Conservation’s Canterbury
Conservancy. DOC Canterbury is the lead Rural Fire Authority in the development of fire management plans
that utilise the Strategic and Tactical Fire Management Plan (STFMP) process to mitigate fire threat’s
identified by Wildfire Threat Analysis. Veronica worked with DOC Canterbury staff to model fire behaviour
across the landscape under various scenarios as the basis for determining fire suppression resource
requirements. In doing so, she gained skills in the ‘real world’ application of Geographical Information
Systems, and understanding of how the results of Scion’s fire research are used operationally by Rural Fire
Authorities.
Richard Parker and Veronica Clifford are members of the Department of Conservation volunteer High
Country Fire Team and attend training and wildfires. Attendance at training days is important for gaining
operational knowledge, getting to know fire managers and crew members and general credibility among the
fire community.
Wildfires
Veronica Clifford attended the Broadfield Fire (Prebbleton, Canterbury) in December for two days as a
volunteer firefighter in DOC’s High Country Fire Team. She gained invaluable first-hand experience attending
as a firefighter and understanding of the real-life issues which arise at fires. Richard Parker also attended the
Washbourne Road Fire (Southbridge, Canterbury) as a DOC High Country Fire Team volunteer firefighter in
February. Although a small fire, Richard gained considerable knowledge of actual firefighting practicalities,
and collected data by wearing one of his own a heart rate monitors throughout. Such experiences adds to
the research team members credibility with fire managers and firefighters, help make our research more
relevant and targeted, and allow research team members to explain our science in terms of real fire events.
Lisa Langer, Veronica Clifford and Grace Stone inspected the Broadfield fire area which destroyed 2 houses, a
chicken farm and damaged nearly 70 ha, a nursery and other property under the guidance of the fire
investigation officer. This is a notable fire and may form a future case study.
Courses & workshops
Grant Pearce and Veronica Clifford presented training sessions on the latest fire behaviour tools to fire
managers in the Greater Wellington and Manawatu/Wanganui regions on 12-13 September. These
workshops allow research staff to meet other members of the wider industry, further strengthen links with
end users, and make sure our research and tools are being taken up by fire managers.
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Grant, Veronica and Tara Strand ran a second national Intermediate Fire Behaviour course (for US4648) for
fire managers in Rotorua from 16-20 September, in conjunction with Telford Polytechnic & Tony Teeling
(DOC). This followed the first course run under the Telford umbrella using the new format held in
Christchurch in May 2012. Further courses are planned for 2013.
Grant Pearce also presented lectures on vegetation fires as part of the University of Canterbury’s Fire
Engineering courses.
Outputs:
Moffat, A.J.; Pearce, H.G. 2013. Harmonising
approaches to evaluation of forest fire risk – Result of a
study tour to New Zealand supported by TRANZFOR.
TRANZFOR Study Tour Report, January 2013. 42 p.
Pearce, G. 2013. Vegetation fire science; and Wildfire
risk management. Lectures presented as part of Fire
Engineering Summer School, Introduction to Fire
Engineering (ENGR403-13SU1), University of
Canterbury, 11 February 2013.
Pearce, G.; Clifford, V. 2012. Practical fire behaviour
tools training. Training workshop presented to the
Greater Wellington Regional Rural Fire Committee,
Hutt City, 12 September 2012.
Scion. 2012. Scion Rural Fire Research Group, Research
update to NZ Forest Owners Association Fire
Committee, 28 November 2012. 2 p.
Pearce, G.; Clifford, V. 2012. Practical fire behaviour
tools training. Training workshop presented to the
Wanganui/Manawatu & Taranaki Regional Rural Fire
Committees, Palmerston North, 13 September 2012.
Scion. 2013. Scion Rural Fire Research Group, Research
update to NZ Forest Owners’ Association Fire
Committee, 21 February 2013, Wellington. 3 p.
Scion. 2012. Fighting wildfires with software and
smartphones. In: Scion. 2012. Scion 2012 Annual
Report, Part A. Scion, Rotorua. pp 17.
Telford & Scion. 2012. Demonstrate knowledge of
vegetation fire behaviour (NZQA US4648), Rotorua, 1720 September 2012. Telford – a Division of Lincoln
University, and Scion Rural Fire Research Group.
Training course, with student notes and references
binders + presentation materials.
Scion. 2013. Twenty years of fire research, an end user
perspective. 8 p.
Scion. 2013. Rural Fire Research. In: Scion. 2013. Forest
Biosecurity and Protection – Annual Science Report
2012. Scion, Rotorua. pp 4-12.
Pearce, G. 2012. Vegetation fire science; and Wildfire
risk management. Lectures presented as part of Fire
Engineering course, Introduction to Fire Engineering
(ENGR403-12), University of Canterbury, 1 & 4 October
2012.
For further information please contact:
Richard Parker
richard.parker@scionresearch.com
Office: 03 364 2949
Cell: 027 290 6964
Grant Pearce
grant.pearce@scionresearch.com
Cell: 027 471 2840
Or visit the What’s New page using the link: www.scionresearch.com/fire
At the What’s New page you can also sign up for email alerts if you would like to receive emails when there is
news from the Rural Fire Research group.
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