Bushfire region in NSW could be hit again

An overview of Australia’s bushfire risk shows that one of the regions hardest hit during January’s horror blazes is in danger of burning again.

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The fire-ravaged New South Wales south coast could burn again this year if rain doesn’t fall in coming months, fire chiefs have warned.

The latest quarterly bushfire outlook report rated most of Australia as having normal fire potential between July and September, but areas of the NSW south coast that didn’t burn last season had above normal fire potential for that period unless an east coast low provided a drenching.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers told News Corp that despite the devastation in December and January, an area north of Eden, out to the ranges and up to the west of Bega that did not burn earlier this year remained vulnerable.

Heavily vegetated areas around Bermagui and Moruya were also at risk, he said.

A bushfire near Bredbo North, February 1, 2020. There are concerns the NSW South Coast could again be vulnerable. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

“There are still quite a lot of areas that didn’t burn, and that area is still really dry. We’ll be

watching really closely,” he said.

While the weather forecast was for cooler conditions, the concern was for windy days, which were always “problematic for firefighting,” Mr Rogers said.

Rain had prevented the RFS from doing more prescribed burning recently, but they anticipate conditions being favourable for hazard reduction burns later in the season this year, he said.

Associate Professor Owen Price from the University of Wollongong’s Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires said the “chances of a disaster are very small”.

“Most of the country has had a good rain season,” he said. “This time last year (the outlook) was completely doom and gloom.”

“It’s fairly reasonable to assume that we’ve got a good two years of protection. After that it’s questionable.”

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers at RFS Headquarters at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: Tim Hunter

Assoc Prof Price said it was uncommon for regions to burn in consecutive fire seasons, but not unprecedented.

Parts of the Blue Mountains burned in Christmas 2001 and immediately adjacent areas burned in 2002, he said.

The bushfire outlook report rated parts of the Kimberley in Western Australia as having above normal fire conditions, while blazes were also possible in Victoria’s East Gippsland region if drought conditions persisted there. These fires would be of a scale of a thousand hectares, the report stated.

Queensland and the Northern Territory were expected to have average fire potential, although there was a risk of grass fires in the Sunshine State due to grass growth and destocking.

The report stated South Australia had low potential for fire activity over the winter period.

Originally published as Bushfire region in NSW could be hit again