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A fireplace chief has issued a stark warning for components of japanese Australia, saying lethal grassfires may very well be on the way in which as areas dry out after flooding.
NSW Rural Hearth Service Commissioner Rob Rogers stated western NSW, components of Queensland and northern Victoria had all had a considerable amount of gas construct up after latest heavy rainfall.
“There is a huge quantity of grass throughout these three states, and that is what we have to take care of the rest of this summer time and clearly wanting ahead to then the next summer time,” Mr Rogers stated.
He urged farmers to be additional vigilant throughout harvest, with heavy equipment in a position to spark the fires.
The rural fire service issued a harvest safety alert to farmers in southern NSW this week as the danger increased.
“What really concerns us … is that we’re going to get in the second half of January, really hot days and strong westerly winds,” Mr Rogers said.
“If we get fire starting like that with the level of growth out there and that growth is drying out, then those fires on those days will have the potential to be really destructive.”
There have been 920 grassfires in NSW since December 1, including 150 in the first five days of January.
While Mr Rogers said the bulk of the fires had been started by lightning, he reminded farmers using harvesters or other heavy machinery of the risks.
Over a 12-month period during 2021 to 2022 firefighters were called to 38 fires in NSW involving heavy equipment, 15 of those involved farming machinery like tractors, harvesters and pickers.
The fire commissioner also warned that fuel was building up faster than usual across the five million hectares burnt in NSW in the deadly 2019/2020 fires.
“I don’t know whether it’s the amount of rainfall that super soaked the soil, and then combined with the ash fertilizing the soil… but whatever the combination is that vegetation has grown back a lot faster,” he said.
Mr Rogers said normally he wouldn’t expect the areas to burn again for up to eight years. But he expected with the accelerated fuel build-up it was likely to be as soon as 2024.
“The concern is anecdotally that that vegetation is really growing at a considerably faster rate than it normally would.”
-AAP
