Cause of fires

With many early season bushfires in NSW and Queensland, widespread fire suppression operations have continued into November. Most NSW fires have been in the north-east, but also in the Central West, South Coast and other areas. At various stages during October, more than 80 fires were active. By 5 November after some welcome rain, the tally was down to 66 going fires with 14 not yet contained.

A number of NSW fires have reached emergency level, with for instance six section 44 declarations in place on 30 October¹. Two lives, many houses and large areas of grazing fodder have been lost. Coupled with a declared El Nino event, the ongoing threat has caused apprehension in the community about the coming summer. But where are all the fires coming from?

The authorities and media have been largely silent on the origin of recent fires, but until 26 October when a wave of storms across northern NSW sparked a reported 47 new ignitions, the role of lightning has been minimal. This leaves human causes.

At the end of August the Central West Village Voice (and presumably other regional media) ran a story from the Rural Fire Service reporting that in August alone “…firefighters across the state have attended more than 600 fires caused by escaped burns“. The article urged landholders to “exercise caution and adhere to rules when conducting burns on their properties“ and described the fire permit system and fines: “escaped fires attract penalties of up to $110,000 and/or five years prison“.

On 31 October at NSW Budget Estimates hearings, the RFS Commissioner said that “landowner escaped burns…[are]…absolutely a problem“…

“Indeed, just this week we’ve been dealing with quite a number of fires in the north of the State. In areas around Tenterfield there are more than 10 fires burning. Firefighters develop strategies to contain those fires and then suddenly there’s another fire lit, we believe, by landowners to try to protect their own properties. We’re working closely with police Strike Force Tronto to try to identify those landowners and, where we can, obviously get prosecutions through police. We’ve also been fining—RFS can fine landowners where their burns are either illegal or they escape. We are really ramping up our action against landowners because it is costing the State hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.”

RFS Commissioner, NSW Budget Estimates hearing, 31 October 2023

The Commissioner went on to explain that bringing forward district bushfire danger periods when burnoff permits are required would create challenges for resourcing the permit system. The statutory bushfire danger period in NSW runs from 1 October to 1 March, but is often varied due to local conditions.

1. RFS State Operations Overview, 30 October 2023 ↩︎

IBG comment

• There are many ways to reduce the number, extent, impact and cost of bush and grass wildfires. Preventing human-caused ignitions and escaped burnoffs is one way that could pay large dividends. By November the tally of burnoff escapes would greatly exceed the 600+ attended in August alone.
• Escaped burnoffs are not only costly for NSW in dollar terms, but also in stress and time for firefighters, impact on property, rural land and conservation areas, and on community cohesion and anxiety. Some areas have seen volunteers responding to repeated escaped fires throughout spring, exhausting equipment and energies for the coming summer.
• Deliberate ‘freelancing’ by people lighting new fires in an effort to protect their properties, with little or no regard to containment or broader strategy, is effectively arson. This has always happened to some extent, including instances in Black Summer. Perhaps the 2019-2020 experience and anxiety about “the worst fire season since Black Summer” has heightened fears. Some people may not understand what is being done in bushfire suppression, or they may lack confidence in official action.
• It would be inappropriate to completely restrict landowners from legitimate early-season burning off to reduce the risk on their properties, but there is clearly a need to ensure as few burns as possible escape. Poor burning skills may be a factor. The speed with which parts of the landscape dried off this spring may have caught some off guard. In this context bringing forward the bushfire danger period to require permits earlier may have been helpful.
• The burden of processing burn permits often falls to a few key senior positions in bushfire brigades, who are the same volunteers who end up committing their time to suppressing escaped private burnoffs. The time taken to inspect and issue permits is a fraction of the effort needed to extinguish the many escaped fires.
• Many factors lead to escaped burnoffs and freelance backburning, so a multi-pronged approach is necessary. Permits and enforcement alone will have some effect but other strategies are needed. Many of the issues are local and cultural, perhaps historical. Rural communities and bush fire brigades are often well integrated, so community engagement with communication and education could be effective parts of the response.