Bushfire Council warns Canberra at risk of 'eruptive fire behaviour' due to burn-off backlog

By Susan McDonald and Elise Fantin

ACT authorities are working to get on top of a "growing backlog" of prescribed burns, following warnings in a confidential report about funding issues and the increased risk of "severe landscape fires" in the Canberra region.

Emergency Services Agency (ESA) commissioner Dominic Lane played down the concerns contained in the ACT Bushfire Council's latest preparedness report, which was handed to Minister Mick Gentleman last November but recently obtained by the ABC.

The council reported that over the past four years only 45 per cent of the area planned for prescribed burning — amounting to 13,009 hectares — had been achieved "due to lack of suitable weather conditions" when it was either too wet, too dry or too hot.

"Council is extremely concerned at this growing backlog," the report stated.

The Bushfire Council is an advisory body made up of members with diverse skills such as fire sciences, Indigenous land management, fire fighting and community interests.

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The council sounded the alarm about two large burns in particular, both in Namadgi National Park, that have not been undertaken, saying "the fuel loads and fuel hazards would be high enough to sustain eruptive fire behaviour".

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