A Few Preliminary Observations on "Black Tuesday" The February 7, 1967 Fires In Tasmania, Australia
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Date
1967
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Disaster Research Center
Abstract
Description
On Tuesday, February 7, 1967, all of these factors combined to produce the most destructive fires in the history of Tasmania. Extremely dry weather during the preceding two months had created a serious incendiary hazard throughout the State, so that when isolated blazes were reported to fire and police authorities during the early morning hours of Tuesday, the problem was not unexpected, These first fire reports were from the quasi-mountainous areas in the southeastern quarter of the island, generally within 10 miles of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. In this report, we will initially describe the Hobart area and southeastern Tasmania. This will be followed by descriptions of the structure of key emergency organizations and their functioning during the disaster. Finally, particular organizational problems will be discussed, and some general observations and conclusions will be presented. This report is a preliminary working paper and the ideas herein presented are not based on a systematic analysis of all of the available data. Some of the interpretations presented in this preliminary report, then, may later be elaborated upon or modified somewhat upon further analysis of the data.
Keywords
Black Tuesday, Tasmania, Australia, fire brigades, emergency organizations, police organizations, fires