While the New South Wales fire season has only just officially started, bushfires have already caused serious problems throughout the state … and things are expected to get worse.
Experts fear that heavy rainfall in previous years combined with mild temperatures this winter mean there are huge fuel loads out there, and grassland areas are primed to burn.
NSW has already faced more than 2500 grass and bushfires this year with more than a thousand of those occurring within the past month.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting continued above-normal temperatures and an absence of rainfall across much of NSW.
The state’s Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, told the ABC that the next few months could be disastrous.
“You’ve got the indicators that says we’re going to be in for a very difficult and challenging fire season, he said. “‘She’ll be right, mate’ just isn’t good enough. You need to take action now. You can’t leave it ’til the last minute. As history will show, that’s where things go wrong, and sadly, too often, that’s where lives are lost.”
And it’s not just New South Walers that is bracing itself for a tough few months.
According to the CEO of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, Dr Richard Thornton, large areas of Australia can expect above-average fire activity this summer … and he identified grassland areas around the country which are going to cause problems.
“So particularly through NSW, through western parts of Victoria, central areas in Queensland and very much through the central parts of South Australia and the coastal regions in WA, and up in the north around the Kimberley and the Pilbara areas,” he said.
Residents and travellers in bushfire prone areas are urged by all authorities to be prepared … and that means writing down a bushfire survival plan and having a back-up plan for when circumstances change.
How do you prepare yourself for the possibility of bushfire? Comment blow
lack of Government funding and the influx of middle management green ideological green zealots ha prevented proper burnous in every state. Currently in WA but the talkback radio has the same message as the eastern states. Lack of burning means fiercer fires during the season. And NOTHING to do with “Man Mad” global warming.
Its not a matter of if we will see large Bushfire but when it will happen September has seen a number of significant fires and they are behaving like fires normally do at the peak of the season. DON’T leave it any longer prepare your home NOW and check your Bushfire Survival Plan it may need an update and if you have not prepared one yet you are really putting your life at risk, download one from your State Fire Service today