Queensland firefighters race to prepare for heightened fire season, hampered by rainfall

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland firefighters are racing against the clock to prepare for a heightened bushfire season, with flare-ups already reported in parts of the state. Recent rainfall has increased the chance of grass fires in the Far North, Central Queensland and Western Downs and is hampering preparations.

Transcript

00:00Plumes of smoke billowing from remote areas on Ghari, formerly Fraser Island.

00:08This is how rangers are preparing the World Heritage listed site ahead of the warmer months.

00:15Recently we used the helicopter in order to get a large area of the southern part of the island burnt.

00:21The aerial burns aim to prevent a catastrophic wildfire,

00:25like the one that was sparked by an illegal campfire and burned half of the island in 2020.

00:31Recent rainfall has hampered their efforts by encouraging undergrowth

00:36and reducing the opportunity for controlled burning.

00:39The weather this year has been extremely challenging

00:42and I think any fire practitioner that you talk to throughout this region will be saying the same thing.

00:47Yes, the rain has impeded some of those planned burns,

00:51but as soon as the conditions allow we'll be back out there reducing that risk in the community.

00:57Some communities are already seeing increased bushfire activity.

01:01The far north of the state is drying out quite rapidly

01:05and we've already seen bushfires and escaped hazard reduction burns

01:09in that central region area of Queensland as well.

01:12The far north, central Queensland and the western Downs all considered hot spots,

01:17following a wet winter and expected above average rainfall in spring.

01:23Firefighters have been battling a large bushfire here in Bundaberg.

01:28It's a reminder of what the conditions could be like in the coming weeks.

01:33We ask landowners and land managers to be really vigilant about that.

01:37Even though there's been a lot of rainfall, it doesn't mean that there's a reduced risk

01:40and people need to be really mindful of that.

01:42Lighting gas is where you are going to cause some Ram progress.

01:45So you know what happened in the century

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