Should Australia train the Army to use giant fire - cannons to fight mega petrochemical fires?

First 13 of 13 paragraphs shown The Montara Commission was told Australia’s aging refineries and tank farms at were at increased risk of a major disaster.
Fire combat: Should Australia train the Army to use giant fire - cannons to fight mega petrochemical fires? An image of a small fire-fighting gun appears above. A change of tactics was needed as Australia’s risk of uncontrollable mega-disasters rose, due to ageing of petrochemical systems, a fire fighting firm told the Montara Commission.
Fire techologist’s case: The ‘low probability, high impact incidents’ risk of aging tank farms rose with age, argued Arnaud Diemont Director Fire Fighting Technology in a submission to the Montara Commission .
Australian tank farms 40 years old: Nicolas Souchaud, sales and marketing Fire Fighting Technologies manager told Gas Week most of Australia’s tank farms and refineries were now 40 years old, and risk rose with age.
Some sites underprepared for disaster: He said he believed in some sites the fire fighting equipment did not match an increased volume of processing.   He aslso noted a trend for sale of aging talk farms to “shuffle the risk” off the books. The fire fighting equipment firm's submission to the Montara Commission was made before the BP Gulf disaster - as it listed recent mega events as:
- BP Texas (US, 2005),
- Buncefield Oil Depot (UK, 2005),
- Caribbean Petroleum (Puerto Rico, 2009),
- Indian Oil Jaipur (India, 2009).
Risk of major mega fire disasters in Australia: Diemont Told the Commission “‘Within 5 years we have witnessed at least 4 mega fire disasters (Texas City, Buncefield, Puerto Rico and Jaipur) and multiple smaller incidents; Texas City and Jaipur had loss of life; all caused major loss of refinery assets but also to neighbouring assets. All caused environmental damage. - Fire fighting systems go up in the blaze: In mega events; ‘Typically fixed fire fighting systems are blown up and made useless. Companies and local fire brigades are typically not equipped to fight these types of fires.
Australia underprepared:   Diemont argued Australis should acknowledge it was not prepared for mega events.
New tactics were needed: Diemont sought new laws and funding to properly equip fire brigades and the Army.
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