CFS warns residents to clear fuel loads in and around properties as El Nino weather pattern set to accelerate fires

The warning comes as the Bureau of Meteorology forecast a dry summer with below average rainfall.

South Australians are being warned to prepare for an intense bushfire season as higher fuel loads in regions such as the Adelaide Hills increase the fire risk.

The Country Fire Service is also warning of a “potentially long and drawn out” bushfire season.

It comes as the Bureau of Meteorology officially declared an El Nino summer ahead for Australia, with dry weather and below average rainfall expected across the country.

CFSSA Community Risk and Resilience director Alison May said the dry conditions would cause vegetation to act as fuel loads for already bushfire-prone areas.

“All that vegetation that has grown across those wetter months is now drying out very rapidly and soil moisture levels are dropping very dramatically as well,” Ms May said.

“That vegetation drying out means that should a fire start, it is likely to burn quicker, move quicker and potentially be more intense.”

Ms May said there was an elevated risk for the Upper Murray lands, as well as the state’s upper and lower southwest.

However, she stressed “across the state, it’s time to be vigilant” as any cluster of dry vegetation can act as a fuel load.

CFS Volunteer Grace Dawson at Piccadilly CFS Station. Picture: CFS

“For South Australia, that can mean anything from pine forest through to grasslands, and of course all the various crops we have.”

While it is “business as usual” for the CFS, with no extra precautions being taken due to El Nino, Ms May said volunteer responders were preparing to act quickly.

“We’re ramping up our operational systems, training, priming our brigades and equipment, and making sure our personnel are as well-rested as can be,” she said.

“We’re coming off the back of deployments to Canada and at the moment we’re rotating deployments through to the Northern Territory, so we’re managing fatigue in preparation for looking after the South Australian community.”

Ms May implored residents in high fuel load areas not to wait for November when the heat ramps up and to take precautions now.

She urged residents to clear a 10m wide vegetation clearance zone around their properties, maintain their gutters and grassy verges and be ready to leave safely at a moment’s notice.

“There’s a significant percentage of people that don’t even realise they’re in a bushfire danger zone, particularly in peri-urban and Hills-facing areas,” Ms May said.

“From our perspective, if your plan is to leave early, when a total fire ban day is declared, you’re not there … you’re not caught out trying to go home to pick up kids and collect pets.”

Australia’s last El Nino summer was in 2015-16, when bushfires claimed nine lives and more than 400 homes across the country.

In South Australia, fires raged across the Clare Valley and Wakefield districts destroying more than 90 homes.

Bureau of Meteorology climate services manager Karl Braganza said he was “confident” the weather pattern would last until the end of summer.

“That will mean we are likely to see a continuation of the warm and dry conditions over the summer months,” Dr Braganza said.

“We‘re already seeing extreme conditions in some parts of the continent, particularly in the duration of heat, so we’ve had an extended period of warm and dry weather to start spring.”

Across the border, New South Wales has already declared total fire bans in some parts of the state with emergency services fighting dozens of fires earlier this week.

“I think there’s 61 fires burning in the landscape in NSW at the moment,” Dr Braganza said on Tuesday.

“I think that just underscores if we continue to dry out the landscape over the next three months, then we’ll be adjusting our message accordingly in terms of the risk.”