Toowoomba airport to house six firefighting aircraft ahead of 2021 bushfire season

Two fixed wing water bombers arrived at the Toowoomba Airport early Wednesday morning where they will be on standby, ready to fly at the first sight of fire.

Water bomber plane tends to bushfire burning in Jubilee Park on Toowoomba's range, on September 26, 2020

The cavalry has arrived.

Two AirTractor AT-802 Fixed Wing Bombers, two Bell 214B Rotary Wing Helitak bombers and two surveillance aircraft arrived at the Toowoomba Airport on Wednesday, ready for the start of the 2021 bushfire season.

They are on loan from the National Aerial Firefighting Centre and will wait in the runway ready to fly as soon as they are needed, offering a vital boost to firefighting resources in the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland.

Rural Fire Service Acting Area Director for the Darling Downs and the South West Michael Welsh said his crews are expecting lots of fast moving grass fires as the 2021 bushfire season progresses.

“We have a lot of fuel out there and it is drying off quickly,” he said.

“They will be high impact fire over a short period of time.”

Landholders have been asked to clean up their properties, remove excess timber, branches, grass or dead foliage and revisit their bushfire safety plan.

“We are seeing a few little grass fire events pop up in the past week and we have increased our bushfire alert level for the western areas,” Mr Welsh said.

“That is not to say people cannot do hazard reduction burns but they have to be mindful that the weather will play a big part in how the fire behaves.”

Grass fires have the potential to cover a lot of ground in a matter of minutes, threatening homes and livelihoods.

“This is why people need to phone Triple-0 at the first sign of fire,” Mr Welsh said.

The key areas of concern are farmland and grass country to the north and west of Toowoomba.

Luckily the forests are still very damp, with good moisture reserves in the soil which reduces the threat of large-scale prolonged fires, like those that scorched Crows Nest, Pechey and Millmerran Downs during the 2019 fire season.

“We still have a window of about a month and we are asking people to start thinking about bushfires,” Mr Welsh said.

“There is still time to do those hazard reduction burns.”