'ever' in second last para should be 'never'.

I asked this in another thread.

Does anyone have any information of serious bushfires of similar magnitude erupting in mid October in the same area of the continent?

It appears significant that fires of this number and intensity have broken out this early in the season.

The Rural Fire Service describes the situation thus:

"The Rural Fire Service has called the bushfire threat an "unparalleled" emergency, and warned a potential mega-fire could stretch hundreds of kilometres."

This may be aberration or it may be a portent of things to come.

We should be able to examine the issue without being abused.

Poirot we have now had 2 consecutive years where we have had rain exceeding our annual average by the end of June. This has given us a huge stand of high & now dry grass & brush. This has been followed by the usual dry period through winter.

This is really dangerous in timbered areas, & is just asking to promote crown fires, the most dangerous. Fortunately in more open grazing areas, much of this stuff has now been trampled down by stock looking for fresh green pick, making somewhat less dangerous, as a fire will advance more slowly, making it easier to contain.

I think you may be right that this is a particularly early season. Our rural fire brigade stopped doing burns at the beginning of the month, where they would be usually just be stopping now. This compares to last season, when we had virtually no fires, despite the big fuel load.

One of our biggest problems is with ex city retirees, who don't like either safety burns or agricultural burns. Fire has always been an important tool in controlling woody weeds in grazing country. Pastoralists now feel restricted by thousands of new acreage lifestyle blocks that have popped up everywhere, with residents who complain madly about the smoke.

One 86 year old neighbor, born on his property tells me he sees the district disappearing under garbage regrowth, as farmers retire, & the kids aren't interested in working hard enough to take over. This regrowth is highly flammable.

The loss of farmers fuels the subdivision into a combination of hobby farms & regrowth, & a more flammable district, & worse access for the rural fire brigade.

Thank you, Hasbeen,

I'm still interested in whether bushfires of this nature have been recorded before.

I'm interested in changing weather patterns and the effect they have on preparedness.

In the south of WA we have had much rain, most of it seemed to come down in September. It is still raining regularly (Sunday it rained all day)

No doubt we can expect huge undergrowth because of the late and sustained rains, and the fact that those rains have precluded back-burning.

Be interesting to see how the fire season pans out over here this year as a consequence.

Not that it matters but "Sunday" should have read "Saturday".

Poirot,

The devastating fire at Waterfall. NSW, in 1980 burnt 1,000,000 ha and occurred on the 3 November 1980. Five firefighters lost their lives and 14 homes were destroyed.

Only 3 days stopped it being an October fire and the current fires are only two weeks + earlier than it.

There are so many variable factors that make up the necessary conditions for a major fire that to single out climate change/global warming as a reason for the current fires is simplistic.

The worst fires occurred in 1851, although later in the season.