But the review found there may have been issues with the effectiveness of communication between the ACT Rural Fire Service and the ACT Parks and Conservation Service, resulting in "missed opportunities to consider progress and review burn objectives collaboratively".

The Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council – the peak body representing fire and land management agencies – conducted the review, which scrutinised a bushfire east of Potters Hill in Namadgi National Park.

The fire started as a prescribed burn at 12.30pm on March 10 last year and was initially expected to take two or three days, but it progressed slower than expected because of weather fluctuations and the type of fuel in the landscape.

The same weather system that fuelled the devastating Tathra blaze caused conditions to deteriorate and the Potters Hill fire escaped containment lines at 2.15pm on March 18. It was brought back under control with no injuries or damage to property within 12 hours, having burnt about 200 hectares.

"The decision to light the burn ... was a reasonable one, having in mind the current and forecast weather information then available," the review found.

"Once fire had been introduced into the landscape, there were challenges in completing the prescribed burn as planned, leading to a significant fire weather event that caused an escape of the prescribed burn."

While the review found planning processes for the prescribed burn were "in line with industry standards", it identified communication issues including that incident action plans did not identify a significant fire weather event forecast for the day the fire escaped until two days beforehand.

This was despite the ACT Parks and Conservation Service being aware a week before the fire escaped control of a private forecaster's prediction that highlighted the potential for severe fire weather.

"The review understands that a single person was completing all incident action plans (in this instance approximately five per day), which may have created difficulties in considering all of the potentially relevant factors," the report said.

The reviewers made 12 recommendations for future improvement, which the Emergency Services Agency and the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate have agreed to in principle. They plan to have each of the changes implemented by mid-2019.

The recommendations include clarifying the roles of liaison officers between the Rural Fire Service and the Parks and Conservation Service, introducing short secondments between the organisations, and developing a centralised and shared training register.

Emergency Services Agency commissioner Dominic Lane said the review confirmed the decision to undertake the prescribed burn was the right one at the time.

"Unfortunately, sometimes the weather beats us," Mr Lane said.

"In this case, we had an example of extreme fire danger where this particularly fire did escape, but fortunately, we were prepared."

When conditions worsened, a total fire ban was declared two days before the fire jumped containment lines. In anticipation of the fire escaping, an incident management team was then put in place.

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate executive director Ian Walker said the review was timely because it would challenge the ACT government's thinking around the impact of climate change.

"We know that across the country, we’re going to be pressed to manage fire in a space where temperature variability is common," Mr Walker said.

"Therefore, we need to look at where best to use prescribed burning to reduce the risk to life and property in the ACT.

"That’s very much what we’re doing. We’re preparing plans, we’re looking at climate information, we’re modelling information and we’re putting that into our new plans for the future on where to target our prescribed burn activities for the best result ecologically, but also for the best result for life and property."

Mr Walker's comments come after a performance report showed the directorate had reached less than half the prescribed burning target it was aiming to hit by December 31.

He acknowledged that climate change was narrowing the window of opportunity to carry out prescribed burns and that authorities needed to ensure they were targeted well to maximise effectiveness.