Hundreds of fire experts in Auckland next week

More than 500 senior urban and rural fire officers, researchers and experts will be meeting in Auckland for an Australasian conference on 5 to 7 October.

The Australasian Fire Authorities Council annual conference is being held at Sky City Convention Centre – the first time the conference has been held in New Zealand in eight years. The New Zealand Fire Service is hosting the conference.

This year’s conference theme is innovation and technology. Conference topics include social change, technological change, climate change, human behaviour in fires and other technical advances.

80 per cent of the participants will be Australian. The Australian Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre conference is held conjointly.

AFAC is a representative body for fire and emergency services and land management agencies in the Australasian region. It was established in 1993 and has 23 full members and 14 associate members, including Australian fire and emergency services and land management agencies, the Australian Council of State Emergency Services and the New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Hong Kong and East Timor Fire Services. AFAC strives to achieve: • Regional focus for industry
• Coordination of activities and resources
• Policy formulation
• Information sharing.

The agencies combine on research, training, purchasing and other joint initiatives. AFAC also provides a unified Australasian voice in the international firefighter arena on issues such as standards.

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