News

AGM Guest Speaker talks of Bush Fire Aftermath

6th January, 2011

Attendees at the 2010 East Grampians Health Service Annual General Meeting held at the Ararat Town Hall were fascinated by the presentation given by Dr. Noel Woodford about last year's horrific bush fires.

Dr. Woodford, Head of Forensic Pathology at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, spoke about the overwhelming aftermath following the 2009 bushfires that swept through the southern state of Victoria, leaving 173 people dead and 500 injured. His talk focused on body identification following the bushfires, the heat wave and how 300 lives were lost.

A difficult process resulted as a team from all over Australia attempted to identify bodies and in a lot of cases merely what remained of them.The bushfires raged through many areas of Victoria, leaving behind total devastation and little for the medical teams to work with.

Technology, such as the CT scanner, was one of the applications used to identify any piece of evidence - gender, prostheses etc. Lessons were learnt from the 911 disaster in New York and as the Mortuary at VIFM has the capacity to only hold 100 bodies extra resources were required which comprised not only of physical equipment but also medical expertise from all over the country to assist in the identification process.

Dr Noel Woodford commented "It was impressive to see how our team handled the enormity of the situation and how well they worked under such enormous pressure, workloads and the difficult tasks before them., we really do have a good team here."

"Regrettably a lot of lives were lost that day, but out of it, we learnt a lot of things, which will help with better procedures and practices when handling a situation of this magnitude if it ever happens again."

Dr. Woodford's account from a "Forensic Pathologist's Viewpoint" was a fascinating account of what clearly was a very professional and well conducted exercise and one the audience found very enlightening.