Authorities warn the looming fire season in Western Australia will be hotter and drier than normal, and start earlier than usual.
Key points:
- The signs are pointing to a difficult summer ahead, authorities warn
- Conditions may be similar to those during the 2021 Wooroloo bushfire
- People are being urged to revisit their bushfire plans now
Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said signs were already pointing to another difficult summer ahead.
“We’re anticipating the bushfire season is going to come forward because the forecast is for not a lot of rain during spring,” he said.
“Now is a really good time for people out in the community to revisit their bushfire plan.”
Commissioner Klemm said the South West Land Division would be at particular risk.
“While it’s a pretty big area, the measurements that we’ve got out there around just the deficiency of moisture in the soil is significant at this time of year already,” he said.
“It’s not going to take too much warm weather for us to get into a really drying trend.”
The commissioner said conditions being observed now were similar to those during the Wooroloo bushfire in 2021, which destroyed 86 homes and burnt through almost 11,000 hectares of land.
“We are seeing the sort of warmer nights, sort of higher minimum temperatures … the absence of moisture in the air so the humidity levels are really low,” he said.
“It all rolls up to really dry fuel, dry bush which obviously burns so much more intense.”
‘It will be hot, we’ll have heatwaves’
Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said the efforts of emergency services workers and volunteers would be crucial in the impending fire season.
“The summer period ahead of us will be dry, it will be hot, we’ll have heatwaves, we’ll likely have fires,” he said.
“In Western Australia we have about 26,000 volunteers and about 1,800 DFES staff who work tirelessly helping keep our community safe.”
Mr Dawson praised their efforts over what he described as an “interesting” year for emergency services.
“We had a major cyclone in the north west in Fitzroy Crossing, we had lots of devastation, we had bushfires, and of course we had a missing piece of radioactive material — all within the first few months.”