Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) involvement in 'extraordinary events' such as severe weather and wildfire has become more prominent in recent years. With extensive flooding over the last three years and campaign bushfires becoming a regular occurrence, our responses to these events have increased.

The impact of these types of events on emergency services organisations has been understated, as at the end of the event there is little hard evidence of the effort of the people and the organisation. Hard evidence requires hard data.

Systems and processes are in place to capture the extent of 'business as usual' responses and this is usually done well. However when these 'out of the ordinary' events occur the current systems and processes are left by the wayside and we end up in an information black hole.

This was Queensland Fire and Rescue Service’s (QFRS) experience during the Queensland Floods in 2010/11. Consequently a small team of people undertook a review of data capture and reporting for extraordinary events. This has taken us on a journey into the depths of our operational data capture systems to find a way to better utilise this data in order to produce the required information.

New processes have been developed to leverage off of our existing systems and have provided an improvement in reporting on incidents, activities, time and people. These processes continue to be refined and tested during large scale responses.

Come share the journey of a small but dedicated group of people committed to finding a solution to the issues involved with reporting on extraordinary events.