The time for authorities to prepare for bushfires is getting smaller every year as the fire season becomes longer, a new report has warned.
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The Climate Council’s latest report has predicted Victoria’s fire danger period will continue to lengthen as the climate keeps warming.
Professor Tim Flannery, one of the council’s founders, said the increasing severity and frequency of fires would strain firefighting resources.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions – in addition to preparing communities, emergency services and the health sector – is an absolute priority if we are to protect Victorians from worsening fire danger,” he said. “Climate change is making hot days hotter and heatwaves more intense, which, when coupled with dry conditions, drives up the odds of high fire danger weather.”
Fuel reduction burns could not be conducted in the North East before this fire season, but CFA’s district 23 operations officer Trevor Logan said they were still part of the organisation’s planning.
“This spring we had very limited opportunities because it went from very wet to dry,” he said.
“In two weeks it went from mud to dust.”
Mr Logan said fire brigades could no longer just conduct burn-offs as they pleased – it was all conducted through a vegetation management officer in each district.
He said those officers would continue to investigate the best time for fuel reduction burns year round.
Firefighters planned a burn along the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail at Tarrawingee before this season, but the changing weather never provided an opening.
Climate change expert Will Steffen said the Climate Council report showed more action was required because the climate reduced the ability of fire services to minimise the fire risk.
“The window of opportunity for safe hazard-reduction burning is diminishing due to lengthening fire seasons, leaving Victoria even more vulnerable,” he said.
The report projected the economic toll of Victoria’s bushfires would more than double to $378 million by 2050 as the season extended into October and March.
The 2016–17 bushfire season was expected to be “above normal” due to above-average temperatures and a lack of rainfall.
Mr Logan said he believed the 2017 fire danger would ease at the end of summer.
“We’re expecting it to go to the end of February, so we have about six weeks left, then hopefully it’s a nice autumn,” he said.