Fire chiefs have warned people living in fire-prone areas to begin preparing for an elevated fire risk as Australia faces its first dry summer in three years.
The country is heading in to summer with a high fuel load, due to three wet La Niña years, and the Bureau of Meteorology has warned Australia could face a summer of heatwaves and fires, with warmer than average temperatures and lower than average rainfall forecast through October.
It is not a direct repeat of the devastating 2019-2020 bushfire season, which followed years of drought and capped off Australia’s hottest and driest year on record. But authorities have warned people not to be complacent.
The grass is green – for now
The fuel load in 2019 was very dry, but sparse. This year the fuel is less dry but there’s far more of it.
“We’re not on the back of four years of drought, but we’ve got all that grass that we didn’t have in 2019-2020,” the New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner, Rob Rogers, said. “So, it’s just a different risk to that season, but it’s still the most significant risk that we’ve faced since those big fires.
“You’re seeing grass like a metre tall in some areas, and then you have a frost that goes through and the frost just kills. And then that all becomes ready to burn, and it’s a very different fuel.”
The fires have already started in some areas, with both the RFS and Victoria’s Country Fire Authority reporting twice as many reports of fires in July 2023 compared with July 2022.
Superintendent of the Queensland Fire Emergency Services, James Haig, said despite the record rainfall of the past three years “we’re still expecting some significant fires”.
“We’re already seeing conditions dry out,” he said.
Tree-changers and property preparation
Bushfire preparation is best done while the grass is still green and the soil still soggy. Gutters should be cleaned and fuel such as long grass and dead branches should be removed from around homes and properties in rural and semi-rural areas.
“Those preparations that are done now and before the bushfire season, or before a bushfire actually occurs, can make a huge difference to the ability to protect your property and to its likelihood of coming through unscathed and minimising any impacts,” said Haig.
The Country Fire Authority Victoria chief officer, Jason Heffernan, said preparation could involve “simple mowing of the lawn, tidying up and around the house, moving the wood pile away from the back door that you probably had during winter”.
More than 100,000 people moved to the regions during 2021-2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“There would be many people that live in rural and regional areas now on the urban bushland or grassland interface that perhaps haven’t experienced a bushfire before,” Heffernan said.
“If that is the case, it’s not something to be afraid of. It’s about taking the time, making a bushfire survival plan, going through the steps and considering: how am I going to prepare my property for this season? And when there is a fire, what steps and actions am I going to take and my family is going to take to ensure the safety and survivability of themselves and their property?”
Draft a bushfire survival plan
If you live in a regional or peri-urban area, you should have a bushfire survival plan in place before summer.
The Rural Fire Service in each state and territory provides advice and jurisdiction-specific guidance, but in general they recommend residents consider whether they plan to leave early in the event of a fire or stay and defend if their property is well prepared. Leaving early is the safest option.
“In those catastrophic [fire danger days] our advice is you shouldn’t stay,” said Rogers. “But in the lower levels of fire risk, then people make a choice as far as what they want to do, as far as staying to defend or leave.”
Whatever the choice, it has to be planned ahead of time.
“Don’t just decide at the time because that then can make you make poor decisions because you’re doing things under stress and with adrenaline flowing through your body,” he said. “It’s something that people should think through carefully.”
How to read the new fire danger rating system
Australia adopted a new national fire danger rating system last year following the royal commission into national natural disaster responses.
There are now just four risk levels: moderate, high, extreme and catastrophic.
On days where the risk is very low, the dial will be set to below moderate, which means that no fire mitigation action is required. The national council for fire and emergency services (Afac) warns fires can still happen on such days, but are unlikely to be a threat to the community.
A moderate rating is a signal to plan and prepare for fire. According to Afac, most fires in these conditions will be able to be controlled. People are advised to stay up to date and ready to act if there is a fire.
On high fire danger days, residents are advised to be alert for fires in their area and decide what to do if a fire starts, in accordance with their bushfire survival plan. Fires can be dangerous and there is a heightened risk.
On an extreme day, the advice is to take action to protect yourself and your property. Fires will spread quickly and be very dangerous. If you and your property are not prepared to the highest level, go to a safer location well before the fire impacts and reconsider travel through bushfire risk areas.
A rating of catastrophic means you must leave bushfire risk areas. If a fire starts and takes hold, lives are likely to be lost. Stay safe by going to a safer location early in the morning or the night before. Authorities warn that homes cannot withstand fires in these conditions, you may not be able to leave and help may not be available.
Emily Middleton is a journalist based in Gilgandra, NSW
