Flooded farmers face ‘fire bomb’

 
NSW Farmers says time is running out to prevent mass bushfires at the end of the year.

Former Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins told The Daily Telegraph “the summer after a triple La Nina you get major bushfires in NSW” and major bushfires would ravage the state by the end of the year.

But the lessons of Black Summer had not been learned, according to NSW Farmers Head of Policy and Advocacy Annabel Johnson, who called for a swift crackdown on public land managers letting weeds grow out of control.

“During Black Summer we saw horrific fires as a result of the disastrous ‘lock it up’ approach to land management,” Ms Johnson said.

“We’ve seen huge parts of the state converted into National Parks and just locked up in the name of conservation, and this is where the next fire risk will come from!

“The decision makers need to come to their senses and listen to the people who experience these natural disasters firsthand, and make sure there is an embedded strategy that will effect change in the short and long term.”

Australia had a long history of wet years followed by fires, Ms Johnson said, which would race from town to town consuming everything in their path.

“You hear the stories of fires outrunning vehicles, and you just hope it never happens to you,” Ms Johnson said.

“I’ve heard of whole farms being incinerated and the people only barely making it out alive, and that was before we had these huge National Park tinderboxes everywhere.

“For the most part farmers and private landholders are actively managing their properties, but there simply are not enough resources to do the same on public lands and this will surely lead to catastrophe.”