Pyro Cumulous Fire Events – What Building Surveyors Need to Know

About this Event Wednesday 8th April 2026 

Professor Rick McRae has been leading research at the University of NSW into the effects on bushfire behaviour from the development of pyro cumulous clouds, the thunderstorm events that are generated by large bushfire events. This behaviour is now much better understood with data accumulated from fire events the world over and provides a basis for evaluation of bushfire safety that supports design and risk assessment for buildings in Australia. In our upcoming webinar event, Professor McRae will describe the latest scientific information.

To assist in understanding the bushfire effects generated by such events, Dr Grahame Douglas from the University of Western Sydney will also present, describing the relevance of the performance requirement terms ‘Design Bushfire’ and ‘Bushfire Effects’ supporting building surveyors to better understand the questions they need to be asking when participating in the Performance Based Design Brief development phase for projects in bushfire prone areas.

AIBS is pleased to present this landmark event of national significance. 

About the Speaker/s

Rick McRae is an Australian ecologist and bushfire specialist whose career in fire and emergency management has spanned more than three decades. Trained in ecology at the University of Sydney, he built a distinguished career based in Canberra, working at the forefront of bushfire science, natural hazard risk assessment, and emergency management.

Over the course of his professional life, McRae served as both a fire management planner and an arson investigator. His expertise extended beyond wildfire to a broad range of natural hazards, including floods, severe storms, landslides, raised dust, and heatwaves. He contributed to numerous national emergency management initiatives, serving on and chairing working groups focused on spatial data, bushfire seasonal outlooks, emergency response coordination, and professional training.

McRae is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where he has specialized in fire behaviour and fire-atmosphere interactions. He has undertaken technical specialist roles during major fire events in the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, and Canada. Following the devastating 2003 Canberra bushfires, he began intensive research into fire-generated thunderstorms, known as pyro convective events or pyroCbs, joining an international scientific collaboration to study their dynamics and impacts.

His work has contributed significantly to advances in understanding extreme fire behaviour. In collaboration with Jason Sharples’ Bushfire Research Group at UNSW Canberra, McRae helped identify vorticity-driven lateral spread and confirm pyro-tornadogenesis in extreme fire conditions. He maintains the Australian pyroCb register and continues to develop predictive tools and case studies to improve operational awareness and risk management.

Currently, McRae’s research focuses on the 2019–2020 Black Summer bushfires, examining their extreme fire behaviour and broader implications. Throughout his career, he has remained deeply committed to research dissemination within the bushfire sector, delivering numerous conference presentations, workshops, and research posters to support knowledge sharing between scientists and practitioners.

Dr Grahame Douglas is the academic course advisor of the Postgraduate Construction programs with the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University. 

He has research interests in bushfire protection measures through planning and construction practice as well as in the impact of climate change on bushfire behaviour. Grahame has worked with the Rural Fire Service of the New South Wales for more than 19 years and was responsible for developing the legislative provisions, policies and guidelines relating to bushfire risk management planning, development control for bushfire prone areas, environmental impact of hazard reduction activities and assisted in initial changes to the state’s variations to the Building Code of Australia. 

He is the principal author of Planning for Bushfire Protection (2001 and 2006) and co-authored many journal and conference publications in the relevant area. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has held a number of public positions including a member of the FP-020 committee for the Australian Standard AS3959 Construction in Bushfire Prone Areas. He is a Hon Life member of the Bushfire Protection Association of Australia. 

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8th April 2026

Zoom Webinar

Module 1 : 2 CPD points

Pricing

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