Hot NSW temperatures to bring first taste of bushfire risk

A hot summer ahead has fire authorities concerned, but the Rural Fire Service has high hopes for Big Red, a Chinook aircraft that can carry 10 times the load of other choppers.

NSW could see the first real bushfire risk of the season next week as heatwave temperatures put hazard reduction burning in jeopardy.

Sydney is set to swelter through temperatures in the mid-30s next week, peaking at 36 in Penrith on Wednesday, and with parts of the state still rife with grass fire fuel, that forecast has the Rural Fire Service concerned.

The fire danger rating on Saturday will be raised to “high”, and RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers said he was prepared for the worst in the coming week.

“Tuesday, Wednesday, it’s going to get hot again and quite windy. So we’re closely monitoring that because that could be the first significant fire risk day for the season,” Mr Rogers said.

The RFS is playing a tricky balancing act trying to get NSW prepared before the fire season starts in earnest.

RFS helicopter pilots Nathan Soster and John Fryer with the Chinook. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Anyone around Sydney this past week would know hazard reduction burns have choked the city, with air quality ranked among the worst in the world on Thursday, below Delhi, India, and above just Dubai, UAE, and Lahore, Pakistan.

In hopes the smoke haze would clear this weekend, the RFS cut down on hazard reduction burns towards the end of the week, but even if the smoke clears in time for the Sydney Marathon it’s far from the last hazard reduction blitz this season.

The RFS Chinook water bomber in action after arriving in Australia in July.

Mr Rogers said of a planned 300,000ha of burning, weather conditions had so far only permitted 14 per cent to be burned.

“We want this smoke to clear out before we do much else, but there’s still a lot of hazard reduction to do,” he said.

“To meet all our targets, we would have to keep doing what we are doing this week all year, so it’s very hard to get that amount done.”

In the coming week, burns are planned around Hornsby, Wollondilly, Central Coast, Camden, Wollongong and northern beaches areas.

The Chinook was dispatched to the Clarence Valley for 11 days in August.

The secret weapon to fighting the fires will be the new RFS Chinook, which touched down in Sydney in July and has already been put to use with fires in the Clarence Valley last month.

Pilot John Fryer hopes he won’t have to fly the chopper, but with grass fires likely to plague NSW this summer the Chinook will be a game-changer.

“It brings a heavy lift capability, so roughly 10,000 litres, and can lift 11 tonne, it can bring more punch to the fire and what we can do in one load other choppers can do in ten,” he said.

“From what I can tell it looks to be a busy year in front of us and we stand ready to protect any community in NSW and outside it … it’s an insurance policy, we hope not to use it but we are here if things get worse.”

Fellow pilot Nathan Soster said the Chinook had already impressed fireys up north, where it was able to drop 2,210,000 litres over 11 days of firefighting.

“The rapid response to a fire is critical especially when we’re talking grass fires,” he said.

“We can contain the fire, control it, minimise the spread.

“And the quicker we can do that, the ground crews can come in and finish the job.”

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Originally published as Hot NSW temperatures to bring first taste of bushfire risk