Former fire service leaders from every state and territory are warning climate pollution is fueling the fires ravaging across Europe, Canada and the US, with worsening fire weather likely in Australia over the next two years.
Founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action and former Commissioner of Fire & Rescue NSW Greg Mullins said:
“I’ve spent over 50 years fighting fires, and I’ve watched this threat change beyond recognition. The fire seasons start earlier, burn hotter and run longer, because climate pollution from coal, oil and gas is heating the planet. Black Summer killed 33 people directly and hundreds more through smoke — and in the six years since, we’ve added more pollution to the problem. Governments that keep approving new coal, oil and gas projects are raising the risk of even worse fire disasters.”
Former Commissioner, ACT Emergency Services Authority Peter Dunn said: “I was in Canberra in 2003, defending my property when three different bushfires merged, producing the first recorded fire generated tornado, trailing destruction through nearby suburbs and destroying nearly 500 homes. Fires that create their own weather were once rare but have now become almost common during bad fire seasons, and I personally experienced this during the Black Summer fires on the NSW South Coast in 2019-2020. These conditions have now been seen for the first time in France. There’s no firefighting force in the world that can contain fires that burn with that intensity.
“We need to prepare our communities for this frightening new fire reality, and we need to stop making things worse. We’ve got some world leaders winding back climate action at the very time that a bigger effort is needed – these people are endangering us all.”
Mike Brown, Former Chief Fire Officer, Tas Fire Service said: “In the past major Tasmanian fires occurred decades apart, but over my career I saw challenging bushfires become much more frequent: with damaging fires in 2006, 2013, 2016 and 2018/19. We’re now seeing huge fires in Tasmanian alpine and rainforest areas like on our west coast, and property destroyed in relatively cool conditions at Dolphin Sands and St Helens in December last year.
“These fires in the Northern Hemisphere are far from over, but it’s already clear that a hotter world is driving fires capable of incredible damage that on the worst days overwhelm even the best-resourced fire services.”
