Faster reporting of Orroral Valley blaze unlikely to impact firefighters' response, Emergency Services Commissioner says

The ACT's Emergency Services Commissioner has told an inquiry she does not think a more timely report of the Orroral Valley bushfire's location would have made a major difference to the emergency response.

The fire broke out south of Canberra in January 2020, when an army helicopter landed for a crew member's toilet break, and a hot light underneath the aircraft came into contact with dry grass.

A coronial inquiry is examining the decision to land, and why the Australian Defence Force (ADF) did not notify emergency services of the fire's location until 45 minutes after the blaze began.

Commissioner Georgeina Whelan has given evidence on the fourth day of public hearings and was asked whether a more prompt report of the fire would have improved the response.

Commissioner Whelan told the inquiry the Emergency Service Agency (ESA) identified the fire within nine minutes of ignition, and it is unlikely an earlier report from the ADF would have made a major difference.

"Whilst I cannot say with certainty, it is unlikely that that would have made a difference to our response," she said.

But she said resources could have been deployed to the exact location, had the army reported the GPS coordinates of the fire.

While the helicopter crew did not have direct contact with the ESA, Commissioner Whelan said she would have expected the crew to report a fire back through its own chain of command.

"That chain of command would have then provided information to the ESA," she said.

"For future [joint] operations it would be helpful if there were direct communications between aircraft and the ESA."

ESA radio logs from the day show the bushfire had been burning for 48 minutes by the time ACT fire crews confirmed its precise location — about the same time the Australian Army was passing over the same information from the crew that had started the fire.

The inquiry has previously heard the possibility of an unplanned landing for a toilet stop had not been considered in the risk assessment of the mission on the day in question.

Commissioner Whelan said if the prospect had been raised with the ESA either during or prior to the mission, it would have attempted to mitigate the risk involved.

"It is likely that a conversation would have occurred around the location where that landing may have taken place, and what the conditions were at the time," she said.

"We would have advised of safe landing zones."

Earlier, the inquiry heard from Lieutenant Colonel Carl Bird, who signed off on a report investigating the circumstances of the aircraft's landing.

Forty-five critical minutes of emergency services radio calls will be examined in an ACT coronial inquiry the government actively tried to prevent.

The report revealed maintenance documents of the MRH90 helicopter contained at least seven warnings that external lighting presented a potential hazard, but that "this information was not readily available to the aircrew."

Lieutenant Colonel Bird described it as "a missed opportunity" that this information was contained in operating manuals for the helicopter, but not in training manuals used by the crew.

The inquiry heard that information was now contained within flight manuals.

A separate officer, Colonel Kim Gilfillan, said given that change, the risk of unplanned landings may now be taken into account during risk assessments, including any potential restrictions.

"The restriction might look like if you are going to land, you must turn the landing light off some time beforehand," he said.

The inquiry before the ACT's Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker is continuing.

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