This time three years ago,bushfires were raging,covering cities and the sky in a sea of smoke. From July 1 until December 6,2019 there were 7766 fires and a total burnt area of just over 2 million hectares burnt.
In comparison,between July 1 and December 6 this year,there were 8491 fires and a total burnt area just over 350,000 hectares. While there have been 725 more incidents this season,during 2019-20 an additional 1.7 million hectares had burnt by this point,or about 6 per cent more land.
NSW Rural Fire Service boss Rob Rogers said while he was concerned about this year’s fire season,the state had not experienced back-to-back drought conditions such as we had in 2019-20.
Instead,heavy rain triggered by three years of La Nina events had fuelled grass growth in the centre of the state which would burn.
He added what was interesting about this fire season was that previously burnt areas that were ravaged in the Black Summer season were burning again,such as Kempsey and Tenterfield.
Regeneration of these areas has occurred much faster than would be expected,with lower plants flourishing,increasing the fire risk.