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By CAITLIN CROWLEY
TOWERING flames fanned by ferocious winds during blazes on the Western Downs in recent months are just a taste of what the region should expect when bushfire season returns this spring, according to the state’s rural fire service.
The dire warning was issued by South West mitigation manager Michael Welsh who told the Caller the scale of the fires at Tara and Moonie were “almost unheard of” for this time of year.
“We are very concerned this is what we are going to see in the usual bushfire season,” Welsh said. “That’s around September, October and November.”
“When you’re getting fires that are creating twisters in those fires – we have evidence from our aircraft showing that – the fires are in the tree tops, they are going very fast across the landscape, that’s what’s happening now, outside our normal fire season.
“What are they going to do in the spring? Those fires are going to be way out of control. We can’t get anywhere near them.”
Welsh said there was a huge fuel load of grass and vegetation on the Downs thanks to extended periods of wet weather, but it was now drying out and heightening the region’s fire danger.
The Rural Fire Service is currently identifying high risk areas to be targeted with mitigation activities over winter, but Welsh said it was critical landowners and residents started preparing their own properties now.
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“Leading into winter, they need to start looking at getting their fire breaks in place to protect structures,” Welsh said.
He said efforts to save homes and sheds during the Moonie and Tara fires were a reminder of how important good fire breaks were.
“Anyone who’s had a well prepared property – they were well defendable – the houses and structures survived,” he said.
“The fires couldn’t have the intensity running up to the property.”
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Welsh said it was also critical to have a bushfire survival plan ready.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” he said.
“When a fire is impacting on someone they panic. When they panic, they lose consciousness of time, they can’t think properly and they start making mistakes.”
The Bureau of Meteorology’s autumn outlook was for warmer and drier conditions than usual for much of Australia, after a drier than average summer in southern Queensland.
The Darling Downs and Granite Belt is in for another unseasonably hot week with maximums forecast to climb into the low to high thirties.