What is MIST
Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST) is now a widely accepted part of the fire suppression effort in North America.
Community values in Australia now necessitate acknowledgement of the dual objectives of fire management in rural areas, and especially the rural/urban interface: these objectives can be broadly described as
- protection of life and property
- and protection of conservation values.
Put simply, MIST is a 'do least damage' philosophy.
How Does MIST Work?
The objective of MIST is to halt or delay fire spread in order to maintain the fire within pre-determined parameters while producing the least possible impact on protected resources. These protected resources might be forest products, fences, livestock, remnant native vegetation, habitat trees, or simply in our Group area, bushland character.
MIST does not compromise firefighter safety, or the effectiveness of the suppression effort, which might put other assets at risk.
MIST does aim to only use suppression tactics that will have minimal long term impact, while achieving a satisfactory fire suppression outcome.
This means we may need to question some of our common assumptions about our immediate fire suppression objectives and tactics.
- Firebreaks
Firebreaks aim to halt additional fire spread, and have come to mean in practice that we construct a break, using hand tools, bulldozers etc. This is often inappropriate - the Mt Martha (Vic.) fires resulted in bulldozer trails adjacent to roads which already had slashed firebreaks - surely an unnecessary (and costly) long term environmental impact. Significant effort and money are now being spent to repair this damage.
- Tree Cutting
A basic philosophy of extinguishing every smoke in the shortest time results in excessive tree cutting. This is clearly essential in some situations. For example on Total Fire Ban days, or in times of high fire risk, complete suppression is a necessary objective.
However, in some situations, unless trees are close to the perimeter of a fire, it is not necessary to ensure extinguishment. Many habitat trees are lost unnecessarily by excessive tree cutting as an increasingly routine part of fire suppression. Of course, the responsible brigade, and possibly the local community, may need to monitor burning trees for some time. Ready access to chainsaws has often lead to a cut first-evaluate later approach to burning trees.
The Christmas Hills Fire Brigade's Position
The Brigade recognises the high aesthetic and conservation value of the area for which it is responsible. It is interested in investigating ways in which the impact of fire prevention and fire suppression can be minimised while providing best protection from fire at all times.
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Christmas Hills Fire Brigade