Experience and research have shown that reducing available fuel influences the rate of spread and intensity of bushfires.
Other factors such as the weather, wind speed, relative humidity and temperature cannot be controlled.

Fuel reduction burning (FRB) goes by many names including prescribed burning, planned burning, controlled burning, hazard reduction burning, candling, edge burning and sometimes even ecological burning.
However, the objective is generally the same: to reduce available fuel safely.
FRB is very different from high intensity slash or regeneration burning after logging operations.

 The upper limit at which a bushfire can be handled safely by either ground crews alone or ground crews supported by fire tankers, graders, bulldozers, is a heat intensity of about 2,000 kW/m.
Severe bushfires, such as on Black Saturday, generated intensities in excess of 100,000 kW/m.
Whereas fuel reduction burning is usually less than 500 kW/m.
For comparison, a large household radiator emits about 1 kW.  
All burning is subject to seasonal conditions and varies greatly year-to-year.
Burning operations require considerable skill and experience as well as large investments of people and equipment to achieve them safely within the short timeframe available during spring and autumn.
Reviewing over 40 years of FCV annual reports reveals that in 1944–45, strip and patch burning was conducted on 35,300 hectares (136 sq mi), the 1954-55 report has fuel reduction burning at 80,000 hectares (310 sq mi), and 10 years later in 1964-65 a similar figure of 77,000 hectares (300 sq mi) was achieved.
By 1974-75 the area fuel reduced had increased to nearly 166,000 hectares (640 sq mi).
In the last full financial year of the Forests Commission, 1982-83 (the year of droughts and the deadly Ash Wednesday bushfires), fuel reduction burning was carried out on 62,345 hectares (240.72 sq mi), which was about one-third of the fifteen year average of 190,000 hectares (730 sq mi).
 By contrast, burning targets set after the Black Saturday Bushfires Royal Commission lifted to 5% of the National Parks and State Forests estate, about 355,000 hectares (1,370 sq mi).

The planning and approvals process for fuel reduction burning was not very sophisticated or bureaucratic up to the late 1970s.
If fuel conditions were suitable, and after checking the weather figures on a McArthur Meter, it was common for the local district forester or experienced forest overseer to simply light-up the bush in late autumn or even winter by using a drip torch or by throwing large fusee matches out of the vehicle window late in the afternoon on their way home from work.
For larger operations in the remote mountains or desert, a helicopter would fly along ridgetops and ignite hundreds of hectares by dropping DAIDs.
The fire would be allowed to then trickle slowly down the north facing slopes in the evening until it went out overnight with the dew the following morning or ran into a wet gully.
But the 1970s were a relatively wet decade so the gullies were damp and full of soggy tree ferns which would stop most burns.
Also, there weren't many people in the bush other than loggers and cattlemen so it was possible to do this with minimal risk.

However, the crash of a helicopter conducting aerial ignition in autumn 1978 with the death of two forest officers and the pilot profoundly shook the small "Fraternity of Foresters".
It led to better accident insurance for staff involved in air operations and the development of a safer aerial incendiary machine.
Experience and research have shown that reducing available fuel influences the rate of spread and intensity of bushfires. Other factors such as the weather, wind speed, relative humidity and temperature cannot be controlled.
Fuel reduction burning (FRB) goes by many names including prescribed burning, planned burning, controlled burning, hazard reduction burning, candling, edge burning and sometimes even ecological burning. However, the objective is generally the same: to reduce available fuel safely. FRB is very different from high intensity slash or regeneration burning after logging operations. 
 The upper limit at which a bushfire can be handled safely by either ground crews alone or ground crews supported by fire tankers, graders, bulldozers, is a heat intensity of about 2,000 kW/m. Severe bushfires, such as on Black Saturday, generated intensities in excess of 100,000 kW/m. Whereas fuel reduction burning is usually less than 500 kW/m. For comparison, a large household radiator emits about 1 kW.  
All burning is subject to seasonal conditions and varies greatly year-to-year. Burning operations require considerable skill and experience as well as large investments of people and equipment to achieve them safely within the short timeframe available during spring and autumn. Reviewing over 40 years of FCV annual reports reveals that in 1944–45, strip and patch burning was conducted on 35,300 hectares (136 sq mi), the 1954-55 report has fuel reduction burning at 80,000 hectares (310 sq mi), and 10 years later in 1964-65 a similar figure of 77,000 hectares (300 sq mi) was achieved. By 1974-75 the area fuel reduced had increased to nearly 166,000 hectares (640 sq mi). In the last full financial year of the Forests Commission, 1982-83 (the year of droughts and the deadly Ash Wednesday bushfires), fuel reduction burning was carried out on 62,345 hectares (240.72 sq mi), which was about one-third of the fifteen year average of 190,000 hectares (730 sq mi).  By contrast, burning targets set after the Black Saturday Bushfires Royal Commission lifted to 5% of the National Parks and State Forests estate, about 355,000 hectares (1,370 sq mi).
The planning and approvals process for fuel reduction burning was not very sophisticated or bureaucratic up to the late 1970s. If fuel conditions were suitable, and after checking the weather figures on a McArthur Meter, it was common for the local district forester or experienced forest overseer to simply light-up the bush in late autumn or even winter by using a drip torch or by throwing large fusee matches out of the vehicle window late in the afternoon on their way home from work. For larger operations in the remote mountains or desert, a helicopter would fly along ridgetops and ignite hundreds of hectares by dropping DAIDs. The fire would be allowed to then trickle slowly down the north facing slopes in the evening until it went out overnight with the dew the following morning or ran into a wet gully. But the 1970s were a relatively wet decade so the gullies were damp and full of soggy tree ferns which would stop most burns. Also, there weren't many people in the bush other than loggers and cattlemen so it was possible to do this with minimal risk.
However, the crash of a helicopter conducting aerial ignition in autumn 1978 with the death of two forest officers and the pilot profoundly shook the small "Fraternity of Foresters". It led to better accident insurance for staff involved in air operations and the development of a safer aerial incendiary machine.
Forests Commission Victoria