Wildland firefighters who have been diagnosed with or killed by a smoke-related cancer are now eligible for a nearly $450,000 payment from the federal government.
The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act, passed as one of the many parts of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act by President Donald Trump on Thursday, covers around 20 different “exposure-related” cancers under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program, which provides benefits to federal, state, and local officials who are killed or injured in the line of duty. Before the law, firefighters were generally only covered by the program if they were physically injured in the line of duty or died from heart attacks, strokes, or mental health conditions like PTSD.
Eligible wildland firefighters can get a one-time tax-free payment of $448,575, the max benefit for the program in Fiscal Year 2025, and four years of higher education financial support for their children or spouse. Families of wildland firefighters who have died within the last six years are also eligible for the benefits.
Firefighters must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the benefits:
The firefighter’s exposure occurred while they were engaged in the line of duty
The firefighter began serving in the position no fewer than 5 years before the diagnosis or death
The firefighter was diagnosed with cancer not more than 15 years after their last date of active service
The cancer directly results in death or permanent and total disability of the firefighter
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) co-sponsored the legislation with Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) in honor of Michael Paidar, a St. Paul fire captain who died of an aggressive form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia on August 26, 2020, while still working for the fire department, the senator said in a press release.
“This is a critical victory for our firefighters who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe, and for their loved ones,” Klobuchar said in the press release. “This bipartisan legislation will ensure that the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program covers service-related cancers—honoring the commitment we make to our firefighters like Captain Paidar and other first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Eligible firefighters can apply for the benefits on the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits program website. Click here to access it.
Early registrations have now opened for the 8th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels conference in Hobart, Tasmania next year.
Following on from the success of the 2024 conference in three cities across three countries – Canberra/Australia, Tralee/Ireland and Boise/US – the 2026 conference will be held only in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 28 April to 1 May 2026.
After an overwhelming response to the Call for Presentations, conferences organisers are now sorting through the abstracts. The full program will be out early in the new year. It will include a three-day conference schedule of keynote speakers, panel sessions and topical presentations over four streams.
Here are the three keynote speakers:
Amanda McKenzie – CEO of the Climate Council
Prof David Bowman – Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Director of the Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania
Robb Clifton – Director Field and Traverse Operations at the Australian Antarctic Division
A fourth day offers the choice of four workshops and two field trips to get a deeper understanding of the application of the science to fire behaviour and fuels management.
Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities are now available at a range of levels.
Mark your calendars for this important event and stay tuned for more details.
Snowpacks in western United States are projected to decline in size and melt earlier when high emissions climate scenarios are combined with more wildfires, putting an increasing strain on vital water resources.
Research in Science Advances notes that wildfires are increasingly burning in snow-dominated watersheds and are altering the dynamics of snow melt. Snowpacks, a vital water resource that recharges aquifers and sustains streamflow during drier months, are projected to decline in the western United States by between 40 to 75% by 2100 under high emissions climate scenarios.
Snowmelt timing and magnitude are major controls on reservoir storage for municipal water supply, agricultural use, hydroelectric power generation, and flood control. Warmer temperatures and expanding population pressures are only increasing these demands. In the western US, snowmelt-derived runoff from mountainous regions contributes up to 70% of total annual flow.
Burned area in western forest snowpack areas has increased by 9% annually between 1984 and 2017, with areas above 2500 m with historically reliable snowpack seeing the largest relative increase in burned area.
Previous research has claimed that the specific day when all snow has completely melted away is occurring earlier and earlier each year in postfire environments. A primary driver of increased snowmelt is due to the black carbon and other charred woody debris shed by burned trees and vegetation onto the snow surface, decreasing the amount of solar radiation snow can reflect and increasing the amount of energy snow absorbs.
Researchers from the Colorado Schools of Mines and the University of Colorado, however, said that previous research has focused on only one to three fires in specific areas, rather than adopting a larger-scale approach. Those researchers have since published their own larger-scale study, using two statistical models and satellite imagery to provide a western US–wide analysis on snowpack in burned areas. They found in virtually every region that has snowpack, snow melts earlier in the first year after a fire than in non-burned areas.
“The Pacific Northwest and northern Sierra Nevada are most vulnerable to snow disappearing up to two weeks earlier after a fire,” the study said. “Additionally, California and Oregon have the largest additional change in the effect of fire on [the snow disappearance date] under +2°C of warming, while the Intermountain West (Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming) experiences small additional earlier melt. In warmer environments, snow disappearance due to postfire energy balance changes can even occur in midwinter, disrupting the anticipated timing of snowmelt runoff.”
The International Association of Wildland Fire is pleased to welcome three new members to its Board of Directors for 2026. Their diverse skills and expertise will help guide the organization into the future.
Joining the Board from 1 January 2026 are:
Mika Peace
Dr Mika Peace is a fire weather researcher in the High Impact Weather team at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. She joined the Bureau in 2002 as an operational meteorologist and has worked in a range of roles in forecasting operations, training and commercial services and research as well as embedded in fire agencies.
She completed her PhD using coupled modelling to explore fire-atmosphere interactions at the University of Adelaide (2010-2014) through scholarships with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and the Bureau.
Mika’s research expertise focuses on bushfire case studies and running high resolution fire-atmosphere coupled simulations using ACCESS-Fire. She partners with fire agencies and land management groups to investigate and document fire and atmosphere interactions during major bushfires, to develop understanding of how the atmosphere in three dimensions drives fire behaviour.
She was a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ after Black Summer preparing submissions for the Royal Commission and the State Inquiries. She has a publication record as lead author in international meteorological science journals.
Mika regularly presents nationally and internationally at conferences and workshops, media interviews, STEM events in schools, Women in STEM and Women in Maths and science events in the community.
Shawn Bethel
Shawn Bethel has over 40 years of wildfire management experience combining 20 plus years in operational wildfire management agency roles and 20 years working in private sector wildfire mitigation technology.
During his wildfire operations career in British Columbia, Canada, Shawn was a wildland firefighter, senior trainer, helicopter operations specialist including rappel crew and helicopter hoist rescue, air tactical group supervisor, Type 1 Incident Management Team member and Senior Provincial Wildfire Protection Officer.
Shawn served on the BC Wildfire Service wildfire protection leadership team responsible for monitoring wildfire risk, prevention, preparedness, suppression, response, and recovery providing emergency services on 2000 plus wildfires annually.
For 10 years, Shawn led the Province of British Columbia’s International Cooperation Program to provide training and consulting services globally. In this role, he developed multiple resource sharing agreements with wildfire agencies around the world. Shawn helped manage the USA/Canada cross border agreements and the Northwest Compact.
Shawn has project leadership experience with operational teams conducting international training and consulting projects in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Ecuador, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Ghana, and South Africa. Shawn managed two separate wildfire management technology transfer projects, funded by the Canadian Government 1998-2004 in Malaysia and Argentina. He served on the Canadian Fire Management Team’s Post Wildfire Evaluation Project, for the devastating Peloponnese and Olympia fires, at the request of the Government of Greece in 2007.
Shawn continues to have direct involvement in the international wildfire community, leveraging industry knowledge and experience in the development, promotion and application of wildfire technologies that support wildfire management and mitigation efforts globally. Shawn lives with his wife and two sons on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where they live on a hobby farm in the beautiful Cowichan Valley.
Bob Bale
Bob Bale is the Nature Conservancy-Minnesota Fire in the Forest Program Manager and Indigenous Peoples Burning Network staff member.
Bob manages a prescribed burn program in Northern Minnesota focused on agency and tribal partners cooperative training, planning, funding, operations and public outreach. Bob is an active staff member of the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, fostering partnerships rooted in respect and trust with Indigenous practitioners.
As a TNC Coda Fellow, Bob was a guest of Tanzania National Parks to facilitate the completion of Serengeti National Parks fire management plan Bob was also asked to modify Tanzania National Parks fire management planning process that was subsequently adopted and applied to their remaining savanna national parks.
Bob founded a conservation non-profit operating across 12 US states and The Bahamas. He led fundraising, donor cultivation, grant writing and partnership building. He sought to cultivate an organizational culture emphasizing equity, diversity, and High Reliability Organizing (HRO) principles.
Bob serves on the steering committee of the Minnesota Prescribed Fire Council and has served as co-lead of the Minnesota Forests Fire Learning Network. His professional education includes an MA in Geography and Planning from West Chester University and a BA in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University .
At the same time, the IAWF extends its heartfelt gratitude to departing Directors, whose terms have concluded. Their dedication and contributions over the years have been invaluable to the IAWF’s mission.
With appreciation, we recognize the contributions of Joaquin Ramirez and Naomi Stephens to the IAWF Board over many years.
A landmark effort toward fighting wildfires on a global scale took another step forward after a new resolution was passed at the seventh United Nations Environmental Assembly conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
The resolution, drafted and led by India, received wide support from participating nations and aims to strengthen international cooperation and coordinated action for wildfire management, according to a press release from India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
India’s resolution drew attention to the UN Environmental Programme’s “Spreading Like Wildfire” global report from 2022, which warned that global wildfires are projected to rise by 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050, and 50% by 2100 if current trends continue. The report also called on governments throughout the world to adopt a new “Fire Ready Formula” with two-thirds of wildfire-focused funding to be devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery, with the other one-third focused on response, compared to current funding models where response receives over half of related funding.
India emphasized, in its push for the resolution, that the projections emphasize the escalating frequency and severity of wildfires represent a long-term global risk and require urgent coordinated international action.
“Each year, millions of hectares of land are affected by fires, causing enormous destruction to forests, biodiversity, water resources, soil health, air quality, and livelihoods,” the ministry’s press release said. “Wildfires also release significant greenhouse gases, weaken carbon sinks, and heavily impact forest-dependent communities and national economies.”
The resolution built on and strengthened the UN’s Global Fire Management Hub, which was established in 2023 to bring together member nations to assist countries in building wildfire management capacities through knowledge sharing, developing risk assessments, and encouraging policy support. The resolution specifically enhanced international cooperation on climate finance, early-warning systems, satellite-based monitoring, and ecosystem restoration.
For a decade before Wildfire Today Founder and wildland firefighting stalwart Bill Gabbert’s death, he wrote numerous articles on what he called the “Holy Grail of wildland firefighting safety.”
Gabbert described this Grail as a system that could track the real-time location of firefighters and the wildfire they were fighting. The data should then be available in real time to key supervisors and decision makers involved in the operations and planning sections of wildfire response.
“It can save lives. There is no acceptable excuse for not getting this done,” Gabbert said in a 2019 article, explaining his “Holy Grail” definition. “The five federal land management agencies and the states with significant numbers of wildland firefighters need to implement a Holy Grail system as soon as possible … Government officials who drag their feet on this should have trouble sleeping at night.”
A company claimed to Wildfire Today that it is closer to making this quest a reality. RoGO Communications, which focuses on developing safety technology for firefighters and first responders, was recently awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract to develop its “DropBlock 2.0.”
The tool, which is about as big as three smartphones stacked on top of each other, would enable all deployed personnel to see near-real-time GPS locations for all firefighters and fire assets, such as bulldozers, water tenders, fire engines, high-value structures, medical evacuation and rescue sites, and makeshift water resources, along with the fire’s current location.
DropBlock would also share hyper-local fire weather information, including wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, and other sensor data. RoGO also plans to release a mobile phone app in early 2026 that enables point-to-point communications among DropBlocks and crews, and plans to expand support to other first responders for hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.
DropBlocks went through Phase I, or discovery, portion of the NASA contract in the third quarter of 2024. The technology is now in Phase II, or the building phase, and will continue in that phase over the next two years, RoGO told Wildfire Today. Afterwards, it will go into the third and final phase to commercialize it within the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. RoGO CEO Rod Goossen also told Wildfire Today he is speaking with partners in Canada, Australia, and other U.S. allied nations for the possible deployment of DropBlock there.
The US Department of Agriculture Forest Service has ambitious goals: to treat an additional two million acres of hazardous fuels on national forests and grasslands annually; and to support partners by treating an additional three million acres of hazardous fuels annually on other federal, state, tribal and private lands.
To achieve these goals, the use of prescribed fire needs to expand significantly; an increase in prescribed fire is dependent on growing the workforce capacity. Agency administrator workshops are one way to expand that capacity.
This article is published in the latest issue of Wildfire magazine.Read the full edition here.
The benefits of experiential learning (learning by doing) have long been recognized by the wildland fire community. In wildland fire in the United States, this is best exemplified by the position task book system of training; trainees are assigned a book of the many tasks necessary to be fully successful in a role, and they perform those functions under the watchful eye of a fully qualified mentor. Experiential learning is one of the quickest methods to expand the capability of the workforce.
The desire to increase workforce capacity through experiential learning led to the establishment of the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center (Center) in 1998. The Center’s mission is to maintain a national interagency center of excellence for prescribed fire, with an emphasis on actual field experience, to increase skills and knowledge and to build confidence in the application of prescribed fire.
Participants igniting the burn unit under the supervision of instructors / mentors at the agency administrator workshop in Missoula, Montana in May.
Photo courtesy of the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center.
Based in Tallahassee, Florida, the Center originally focused on actual prescribed burning qualifications through 20-day field sessions. During those 20-day trainings, participants traveled to several remote sites to take advantage of prescribed burning and learning opportunities with a variety of agencies, fuel types, and challenges such as the wildland-urban interface. The training locations were in areas where hosts had well-established burn programs with broad prescription windows and high levels of interagency cooperation.
In 2002, the Center began hosting workshops on prescribed fire specifically designed for agency administrators to develop knowledge, skills and confidence in oversight of a prescribed fire program. An agency administrator is defined by the U.S. National Wildfire Coordinating Group as “the official with the delegated authority, responsibility, and qualifications for decision making on incidents or prescribed fires within a particular administrative unit. The managing officer of an agency, division thereof, or jurisdiction having statutory responsibility for incident mitigation and management.” Examples of agency administrators are federal line officers, state forest officers / delegates or fire managers, tribal chairpersons, fire chiefs, police chief, sheriffs, mayors or county representatives.
Regarding wildland fire management, either prescribed fire or fire suppression, the agency administrator is the responsible person representing a particular agency. With prescribed burning the agency administrator has administrative responsibility and delegates the responsibility of technical fire operations to the burn boss. Agency administrators must be prepared to make critical and informed wildland fire management decisions related to land and assets under their span of authority.
“I strongly believe this should be REQUIRED for new line officers in the USFS within the first two years. The mix of hands on, situational, and classroom learning really made this a dynamic and effective course to learn more about both [prescribed burns] and the role of the [agency administrators] in [prescribed burns].”
Prior to 2022, the Center’s activities were primarily in the Southeastern United States and included two agency administrator workshops annually. The 2022 National Prescribed Fire Review called for the Center to expand westward by January 2023. The agency administrator workshop in Missoula, Montana, May 1-7, 2025, was the third session held in the western United States. Other workshops were in Bend, Oregon, in May 2024, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October 2024.
“I recognize that communication between line, fuels and the rest of the district is critical to success.”
Workshop participants are selected from numerous agencies across the United States including the Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, and Department of Defense as well as partners such as states and The Nature Conservancy, a global non-profit dedicated to conserving land and water.
The workshops help agency administrators develop the core competencies necessary to hold decision-making authority for wildfires or prescribed fires. Participants learn about:
• Risk-informed decision making.
• Wildfire response and incident management processes.
• Wildland Fire Decision Support System / Integrated Fuel Treatment Decision Support System and other decision support tools.
• Fuels management and prescribed fire processes.
• Fire prevention, mitigation, and education processes.
• Social, political, economic, and environmental impacts of wildland fire management activities, including prescribed fire.
• Effective communication.
• Collaboration with partners and stakeholders.
• Fiscal management.
“I learned the importance of Leader’s Intent to support and grow my fire program.”
(According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the Leader’s Intent is a statement that outlines what people must know to be successful for a given assignment including tasks, purpose and end state – how things should look when successful completed.)
The objective of agency administrator workshops is that upon completion the agency administrator will:
• Demonstrate the knowledge and confidence necessary to grow or sustain a safe and successful prescribed fire program.
• Demonstrate an understanding of national policy, agency administrator responsibility, accountability, and authority to approve all prescribed fire management actions.
• Identify the principles, policies and procedures to effectively provide oversight of a prescribed fire management program.
A key strength of the training program is the instructors’ proficiency with prescribed burning. The cadre of instructors includes agency administrators and prescribed fire practitioners, who, as a group, have more than 550 years of experience in every aspect of a successful prescribed fire program.
The cadre – composed of federal employees, cooperators and private consultants – is organized into two groups: one focuses on development of exercises, burns, and logistics; the other concentrates on providing mentoring and presentations. The groups interact seamlessly to coordinate instruction and facilitate learning moments as they arise. (A cooperator is defined by the National Fire Coordinating Group as a federal, tribal, state or local agency that participates with other agencies in planning and conducting fire or emergency management projects and activities.)
An important element of the agency administrator workshop is the opportunity for mentoring between the cadre and the participants. Mentoring is a critical consideration in all aspects of the workshop including the formation of the agenda, the selection of the instructors and even the selection of the facilities. The instructors are fully committed to this concept and have arranged for every opportunity to stay involved with the participants including at meals, breaks and social hours. Small group formation is continually reorganized to maximize one-on-one mentoring opportunities and peerto-peer interaction. The overall design of the workshop maximizes the opportunity for mentoring.
The curriculum is designed around several foundational elements including risk management, overcoming constraints, effective internal and external communication, protocol and policy on escapes, burning in the wildland-urban interface, building successful programs, air quality and smoke, liability, land management plans, fire management plans, burn plans, landscape wide application, program monitoring, review and approval responsibility, accountability, oversight and developing partnerships. While the curriculum is consistent, it is also highly adaptable. On the first day of the workshop, participants provide their expectations for the workshop and the instructors then tailor agenda items to the expectations.
Each workshop includes two prescribed burn days. Each burn day has a specific set of objectives designed to give agency administrators hands-on experience. The objectives of the first burn day are to provide the participants with a better understanding of the burn-day organization and the roles and responsibilities of the agency administrator, burn boss, and firing boss. The objectives of the second burn day allow participants to experience simulated pressures, time constraints and the need for flexibility that employees experience on every burn day. This is achieved by allowing the participants to plan, organize and implement a small, prescribed fire with minimal input from the host unit or instructors.
A classroom presentation during the agency administrator workshop in Missoula, Montana, about how to build an action plan.
Photo courtesy of the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center.
Attrition at the agency administrator and burn boss levels leads to loss of institutional knowledge and experience. Land-management agencies need a system for transferring institutional knowledge and experience to new agency administrators and less experienced burn bosses, especially with respect to complexity analysis and burn-plan review processes. The workshops are one tool to facilitate the transfer of that knowledge and experience.
Workshops are planned for; Jan. 29-Feb. 3 in Florida (location TBD); and May 14-19 in Redding, California.
“It was obvious why each cadre member was selected. They were experts in their field with decades of experience, and they each had a passion for both their work and teaching others.”
Steve Miller
Steve Miller served on the board of directors for IAWF from 2017 through 2023, serving as vice president in 2022. Miller has worked in fire since joining the Texas Forest Service in 1985. Since 2018, he has been employed by the US Forest Service, as the director of fire and aviation management for the eastern region.
Prior to joining the USFS, Miller spent 31 years working for the State of Florida. He has a passion for prescribed fire and teaching, having served as adjunct instructor for the University of Florida and the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point.
Erin Myers
Erin Myers joined the National Interagency Prescribed Fire Training Center cadre in 2023, after completing the agency administrator workshop in 2022. Myers became a Florida state certified burner in 2005 and primarily assisted private landowners with prescribed fire planning until 2020, when she became a refuge manager with the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System in Southwest Florida.
In 2018, Myers started training to become a public information officer for wildfire and prescribed fire. She works closely with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Zone 3 fire team in South Florida, assisting with prescribed burning on multiple refuges as either a public information officer, FFT2 or agency administrator. Myers loves sharing information about the benefits of prescribed fire on the landscape with partners and communities.
Brian Fennessy has told his colleagues at the Orange County Fire Authority that he is retiring as head of the agency in January to become the first Director of the newly created United States Wildland Fire Service.
In a memo to all OCFA firefighters and professional staff reported by the Homeland Security Today US website, Fennessy said he had “tentatively accepted” the new role to commence on 12 January 2026. The announcement is being broadly reported in the media but does appear to be announced yet in official government channels.
As he transitions to the new national role Fennessy attributed his selection to “our collective success at OCFA”.
“The creation of the USWFS represents a historic opportunity to strengthen interagency coordination, modernize capabilities, and elevate the profession of wildland firefighting,” he wrote to his colleagues.
Fennessy became chief of the OCFA in April 2018. He began his career in 1978 with the US Department of Agriculture’s United States Forest Service and the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management working as a hotshot crewmember, hotshot/helishot/helitack captain and ultimately crew superintendent.
In 1990, Fennessy joined the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) and ultimately became Chief of that Department in 2015.
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) officially opened up applications for its US Wildland Fire Service Director position in late September.
The position was advertised as being based in either Washington, D.C., or Boise, Idaho, with a salary of $191,900 to $225,700.
The death of two firefighters and the loss of around 40 homes have marked the effective start of the bushfire season across southern Australia and the active engagement of the national aerial firefighting fleet.
Milder conditions today have provided both New South Wales and Tasmania with some respite from extreme fire activity and the opportunity to strengthen containment lines before the heat returns.
Western Australia has had an early hectic start to the season with numerous warnings for fire, storm and heatwave across the vast state. The arrival of a C-130 this week to bolster its 38 aerial firefighting fleet has been welcomed.
The National Aerial Firefighting Centre has 161 aircraft filling 175 services across the country this summer.
Six LATs and 17 Large helicopters are on NAFC contracts this season. Their homebases are in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. While they are located and managed by the home jurisdictions, the NAFC contracts allow them to be shared across borders.
C-130 Hercules, part of the national aerial firefighting fleet 2025. Photo: NEMA
Australian Government funds of $100 million over 2024-25 support the NAFC fleet. Additionally, the grant funds the minimum costs of five national aircraft that are dispatched under the protocols facilitated by the National Resource Sharing Centre. This collaboration allows the Chiefs and Commissioners nationally to decide where these national aircraft can be placed so that they can be mobilised easily to the jurisdiction that has the greatest need. These five aircraft are on contract and in position now.
One National LAT is based in New South Wales, along with its Cessna Birddog aircraft
One National S61 multi use RW, also based in NSW
Two National Blackhawks are based in Qld and South Australia
Eight aircraft in the fleet have complementary contracts with North American agencies and follow the fire season to Australia every summer. Their Australian start dates are staggered across the country and all aircraft are in position in time for their contracted starts.
Further information about the NAFC fleet and its contracted operators can be found on the NAFC website Fleet.
The death in late November of a National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia brigade strike team member working as a firefighter with the Country Fire Service while undertaking remote firefighting on the Eyre Peninsula and the death on the weekend of a New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service firefighter, plus the loss of more than 40 homes in both New South Wales and Tasmania have woken many to the start of the bushfire season across southern Australia. A farmer also died protecting his property in a fire in the south-west of Western Australia in early December.
The NSW NPWS acknowledged the loss in a public statement share on social media:
“It is with immense sadness that we confirm the death of a National Parks and Wildlife Service firefighter while working at a fireground south of Bulahdelah on Sunday night.
Our thoughts are with the firefighter’s family, friends and colleagues, including those from NPWS and NSW Rural Fire Service who were working alongside him.”
In the past week, fires at Koolewong and Bulahdelah in New South Wales destroyed 20 homes and a natural disaster has been declared in several local government areas, while wind-driven fires at Dolphin Sands along the picturesque east coast of Tasmania razed 19 houses and damaged dozens more.
While in November the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed a La Nina to welcome in the summer, it came with the qualification that the wet and cool weather may be brief. The heat well and truly arrived in December and, coupled with the fuel growth and long-term rainfall deficiencies in many regions, the bushfire summer began with several days of heat and wind.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanse has warned Australians of a “difficult” season ahead, with New South Wales in particular danger. He told ABC television:
“This summer, of course, like all summers that would appear in recent times, is going to be a difficult one. But New South Wales in particular has a range of preconditions, if you like, for being quite a difficult one.”
