‘Could be just as dangerous’: Top End warned to brace for busy bushfire season

Frontline fireys who battled ‘catastrophic’ fire weather conditions last year are bracing for another just as busy bushfire season.

• Firefighters ‘fully committed’ as four bushfires rage in the Darwin rural area
• Bushfire alert issued for Darwin River Dam Catchment Complex

FRONTLINE fireys who battled ‘catastrophic’ fire weather conditions last year are bracing for another just as busy bushfire season ahead due to substantial grass growth in the Darwin rural area.

Fire crews were pushed to their limits during the last bushfire season after the Top End was hit with ‘catastrophic’ fire weather conditions for the first time in more than five years.

Bushfire NT crews responded to 470 grass fires in 2020, while NT Fire and Rescue attended up to 400 across the Darwin region.

The NT’s Top End bushfire season has begun.

NT Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer said he expects this year’s bushfire season in the Top End to be as just as busy despite the recent above-average wet season.

“The previous two wet seasons being so dry as they were, meant that we saw fires in areas that we normally wouldn’t see fires, like in water body areas and out in flood plains,” he said.

“With the return of an above-average wet season, some of those areas are now green, and they may hold water through the dry season, so we might not see the same broader landscape-scale fires occurring this year.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer. Picture: Natasha Emeck

“However, there’s been an increase in grass growth in particular in the rural-urban residential area from the rains.

“We’ve got an abundance of grass, so there’s plenty of fuel there that may burn.”

“So while we may see a shorter fire season, the intensity and the fires that may occur on those really bad weather events may be just as dangerous.”

Since this year’s fire season began, some grass fires have already been out at Channel Island and a few minor scrub fires in the Darwin rural area.

To make sure you are safe this fire season:

– Create and maintain fire breaks at least 4m wide;

– Ensure safe access to property for emergency response vehicles; and

– Have a survival plan in place.

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