Tuesday’s conditions would have been considered bad fire weather in the middle of summer. But to have 30 degree plus temperatures across the state and winds gusting from the north must have seemed like an unwelcome awakening for the multitudes of crews called out so early in the season. If there ever was a clear alarm to the flammability of the country we live in and increasing risk posed by a changing climate, it was Tuesday’s fire map; awash with incidents and control activity on only the fifth day of October. A day within only a fortnight of the Spring equinox.
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Twenty units fought fires in the Creswick Forest, normally in October suitable for slow controlled burns, while fires in Dereel and Enfield took up ten more CFA units. A longer season means more resources.
It is a credit to the CFA’s prompt action and coordinated attacks that the damage done was kept to minimum. But that is all the more reason why the warnings issued by the emergency services to prepare fire plans and do the necessary protective work are of increasing importance to these communities and all those who live in proximity.
Some of Tuesday’s fires were caused by burn-offs that were left smouldering and reignited in the hot and blustery conditions. The responsibility of landowners in such conditions must be to ensure fires are fully extinguished - even if they were lit days before. Smouldering stumps can burn for days even weeks and leap back into life with the right conditions. Ordinarily the burn off season might still be in place but the radical change to our weather shows there is no excuse of ignorance or complacency
Finally and perhaps most appalling, is the fact that one of the fires in forest near Magpie was ignited early on Tuesday by a burnt out car. It has fairly been asserted any one torching a car in a forest on a total fire ban day should be charged with the same heavy penalties for arson awaiting those who deliberately light bushfires.
It is a dismaying but ineluctable point that on the first total fire ban of the year an uncanny number of fires leap up in prone areas. Some of these, at least, are caused by intentional arsonists who have a perverted delight in watching things burn and the activity it generates. The police are acutely aware of the problem but it is the community’s eyes and vigilance that will help reduce the menace.