Thanks for the vested advice Farmer Brown. The real point is you need lots of assets to fight fires. Early intervention is a policy practiced in Canada but seemingly not here for lack of equipment, valiant manpower or money. No one decries the efforts of the boys and girls who give their all here but rather we need a bigger "stick" to add to the armory.
It'd be interesting to compare the relative value of the timber resource under threat in Canada, and here..... and how the Candians fund and justify their expenditure.
I only know that in NSW, the budget is determined by a levy on insurance. There comes a point where spending extra money becomes wasteful because the return is too low. To be hard-nosed about it, sometimes it is cheaper to replant and rebuild than it is to spend huge amounts of money on methods of firefighting that show diminishing returns. As I said before, both roads and health systems are underfunded, and this costs us far more lives than fire does.
Fire is not a sacred cow, and must be kept in perspective.
Oh, and by the way. Farmer Brown kept cattle. Yr Obed Svnt is a sheep and grain cocky, who is so passionate about quick response that he keeps a private fire unit parked outside his back door all summer.