Join this special April Hazardous Webinar to learn about early post-disaster field observations of the devasting Los Angeles (LA) fires with on-the-ground researcher Dr Faraz Hedayati (Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety). Brought to you by Natural Hazards Research Australia and AFAC, this webinar will share recently released insight from Faraz’s early post-disaster research and follows on from February’s Lessons from the LA fires and implications for Australia webinar.

Speakers

Dr Faraz Hedyati, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safet
Dr Raphaele Blanchi, CSIRO
Joe Buffone PSM, National Emergency Management Agency
Andrew Gissing, Natural Hazards Research Australia (host)

International guest speaker, Dr Faraz Hedayati will present a preliminary analysis of the LA County fires based on his field observations of the evolution of the fires, from ignition to their conflagration on 7 - 8 January 2025.

Faraz will provide a first look at the findings from recently released studies, discussing the fires’ context as the latest tragic example of catastrophic conflagration when the Santa Ana winds pushed the fires deep into LA County communities. Igniting just outside densely populated areas experiencing drought conditions, the strong winds fuelled uncontrollable structure-to-structure fire spread through connective fuels – a scenario easily replicated around Australia.

A panel discussion with Faraz, Dr Raphaele Blanchi (CSIRO), Joe Buffone (National Emergency Management Agency) and Andrew Gissing (the Centre) will follow the formal presentation.

This webinar is eligible as CPD through AFAC’s Emergency Management Professionalisation Scheme (EMPS).

SPEAKERS:

Dr Faraz Hedayati - Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety

Faraz is a lead research engineer from The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) based in Charlotte, North Carolina. IBHS is an independent, non-profit scientific research and communications organisation. Faraz’s research interests include developing heat transfer models and integrating them with physics-based risk modelling, conducting post-fire field investigations, and applying machine learning/vision to assess wildfire risks to communities. Faraz also serves on the editorial board of Fire Journal.

Read a report IBHS published on the 2025 LA County Wildfires here: https://ibhs.org/lawildfires/

Dr Raphaele Blanchi – CSIRO

Dr Raphaele Blanchi leads the Fire and Landscape Dynamics Group at CSIRO Environment. With a background in geography, she focuses on understanding and reducing the risks posed by bushfires to communities and infrastructure. She has contributed to post-bushfire surveys, the creation of a national life/house loss database, and supporting resident rebuilding efforts after bushfires. The outcomes of her research have been used by fire agencies to develop policies and form the basis of regulatory reforms. She also led the development of bushfire-resilient building guidelines for Queensland and Victoria, focusing on best practices to make buildings and landscapes more adapted to bushfires.

Joe Buffone PSM - National Emergency Management Agency

Joe is the Deputy Coordinator General of the Emergency Management and Response Group at National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and has more than 40 years in security and disaster management. Joe has played a key role in emergency response across Australia and internationally and was previously Director General of Emergency Management Australia (EMA), responsible for overseeing the Australian Government National Situation Room and Coordination of Australian Government Disaster Assistance (non-financial). Joe’s experience in security and disaster management includes positions as Chief Officer of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, Deputy Emergency Management Commissioner Victoria, Deputy Emergency Services Commissioner, Victoria.

Andrew Gissing – Natural Hazards Research Australia (host)

Andrew is the CEO of Natural Hazards Research Australia and in the aftermath of the LA fires provided expert commentary to the media around the why, how and what-if. According to Andrew the fires tell us in Australia that we need to think of the unimaginable, as well as considering our obvious risks that already exist, or are being created, that are underappreciated or may be overlooked.

For any EMPS enquiries please contact: email@emps.org.au