Fire Readiness

Fire readiness is a year-round effort and includes preparing our forests, maintaining our equipment, and training our people. 

Forest fire management begins well before a seedling goes into the ground. When designing the layout of a forest area, we follow a set of guidelines to ensure our forests are designed for fire protection and suppression. 

Every plantation forest is created with strategic breaks and setbacks from boundaries and structures, for the protection of the trees, the environment, other assets, and the community. When the forest is established, in Australia we slash all firebreaks annually and undertake prescribed burning in native forest inliers throughout the estate to reduce fuel loads and to protect biodiversity.

Fire Readiness in Australia

OneFortyOne Fire Policy 

Fire is a significant threat to our forests, environment, and communities in the Green Triangle. 

OneFortyOne’s Fire Policy is our statement of intent about how we will act to reduce the risk and impact of fire in and around our Green Triangle plantations. Download a copy of our Green Triangle Forests Fire Policy.

Firefighter training 

Fire season typically starts in November continuing through to April, and can vary each year depending on weather conditions. New fire fighters complete three days of OneFortyOne practical skills, and three days of SA Country Fire Service basic firefighter training . 

At the beginning of the fire season, we hold Start Up Days, where our fire fighters – OneFortyOne employees, contractors, and summer crew – get together for a day of refresher training. 

Start Up Day training includes a briefing to talk about what’s new since last season, what to be aware of this season, basic practical drills like burn overs and hose lays, and a refamiliarisation with our fire trucks and equipment. 

Training continues for the entire fire team, including our logistics team, throughout the fire season.

Collaboration 

In Australia we operate as a Forest Industry brigade working closely with the South Australian Country Fire Service, the Victorian Country Fire Authority, and a network of other forest growers. 

This cooperation between brigades means that we are supported in the event of a fire within our estate, and we support the network when there are fires elsewhere. Fire managers and fire authorities collaborate to train people, improve equipment and patrol plantation areas. 

As part of this effort, we attend fire simulations and joint training events so we can all work to minimise losses to our communities.

Fire Readiness in New Zealand

OneFortyOne is a key stakeholder in rural fire management in the Nelson/Tasman and Marlborough/Kaikoura regions.  We support the work of Fire Emergency New Zealand in both regions.

In both districts OneFortyOne works with other main rural fire stakeholders to provide resources and equipment to support Fire Emergency New Zealand to effectively manage rural fire.

We contribute to this effort by:

• maintaining a network of water points/fire ponds throughout the forests in the regions so that water is available, even in dry conditions.
• maintaining fire breaks and mown grass verges alongside major roads to reduce the possibility of ignition and fire spread.
• training our staff and contractors so they are equipped to respond to rural fire events both inside our own forests and also in the rural areas of Nelson and Marlborough.
• implementing operational controls during high fire danger periods.
• holding a large supply of fire fighting equipment including four dedicated rural fire appliances ready to respond should a fire start.

Find out more about Public Access in our forests.