QLD bushfires: Landowners, firefighters support back burning to save homes

Land owners and rural firefighters say they should be able to back burn during major bushfires to help save homes, despite the stance of Queensland authorities that it should not be conducted for safety reasons. 

LAND owners and rural firefighters say they feel powerless to backburn to save homes as Queenslanders prepare for another weekend of horror bushfire conditions.

Figures show just 39 per cent of hazard reduction burns have been completed by the State Government in recent years and the LNP says the state’s bushfire strategy is outdated and “ineffective”. 

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Renewed criticism of the state’s bushfire prevention plan comes amid what has already been a devastating bushfire season, with more than 30 structures lost.

A bushfire at Woodgate, south of Bundaberg, yesterday intensified while others south-west of Brisbane and north of Toowoomba eased. Tomorrow is expected to be the next “peak day” for fires in some regional parts of the state.

Under the current law in Queensland, residents cannot back burn to prevent a bushfire from ravaging their home.

This week, residents in the Scenic Rim told The Courier-Mail they felt powerless.

Peter Stenton at his home in Tarome talks about Back burning. Pic Annette Dew

Peter Stenton – whose home came within metres of the bushfire at Tarome a little over a week ago – said he would break the law and backburn if he was faced with disaster again.  “If I was here and there’s a fire there, I would do it whether they said to or not because I know that it’s common sense,” he said.

Mr Stenton believes “it doesn’t make sense not to backburn”.

“Why can’t we light a fire? There’s already a fire and it’s coming towards us. If you backburn it will go back towards the fire – slow and steady and away from your property.

“I haven’t been given any information (about why I can’t).”

One rural firefighter at nearby Clumber said he considered some of the fires in Queensland “unstoppable” unless more burns are done earlier in the year to prevent them.

“No one can stop those fires. The only way you can stop it is with backburning,” the firefighter said.

Despite concerns over just 39 per cent of planned vegetation being selectively burnt in Queensland in recent years, the Environment Department has done the largest number of reduction burns in the past six years, it said.

Together, along with southeast Queensland’s two major councils, there have been more than 300 burns this year.

“The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) reviews the proposed priorities for planned burn locations each year in preparation for the upcoming bushfire season. Conditions are also monitored to determine if additional planned burns are required,” a statement read. 

Opposition fire spokesman Lachlan Millar claimed the current bushfire management was “ineffective”, despite it being in operation since the LNP were in government. “It is not good enough that the Palaszczuk Labor Government has been caught making massive cuts to Rural Fire Service funding in Queensland,” Mr Millar said. “The service’s funding has been cut by $13 million this financial year – a 25 per cent reduction of its 2018/19 budget. Labor must explain to rural and regional Queensland communities who have been fighting bushfires why they have slashed funding for Rural Fire Services.”

Fire Minister Craig Crawford responded by saying this year saw the most hectares treated by planned burns in six years, which was “well above the 600,000 hectares burnt under the LNP”. “How low will the LNP go? Political pointscoring and scaremongering while Queensland is in a State of Fire Emergency – putting lives at risk with misinformation and lies,” he said.