A familiar, deep unease settled in as the sun rose and the mercury soared past 30 degrees before many had finished their morning coffee. The air felt dangerous, thick with the memory of infernos past. For many Australians, the recent heatwave and bushfires in Victoria were not just news items; they were a visceral trigger, transporting them back to the trauma of the Black Summer six years prior.
Echoes of a Devastating Past
The compulsive checking of fire apps, the dry eyes from a hot north-westerly breeze, the helpless dread for communities in the path of flames – these behaviours, forged in the firestorm of 2019-20, resurfaced with alarming ease. Watching the heartbreak on the faces of those who lost homes and lifetimes of memories to ash and twisted metal was a painful reminder. While the immediate threat this time was in Victoria, the emotional impact resonated nationwide, particularly in regions still scarred by their own battles with unstoppable fire.
The parallels were stark and frightening: ground parched by heat and drought, pyrocumulus storms created by the fires themselves, and the dangerous whiplash of cool changes that can suddenly redirect a fire's fury. The same terrifying SMS alerts declaring it "too late to leave" once again spelled imminent peril for residents.
A Lengthening Fire Season
At a media briefing, Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch noted that even the slightest winds were causing fires to shift unpredictably. Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Jason Heffernan warned that the recent heat was just the beginning, with another significant "heating event" forecast for late January. "We are only in the early part of the high-risk weather season," he cautioned.
This raises a critical question: does fire in Australia still adhere to a traditional season? The label "Black Summer" for the 2019-20 catastrophe was somewhat misleading, as many of those blazes began burning in winter. That unprecedented inferno, which stretched from Queensland to Victoria, raged for an incredible nine months.
Lessons from Home and Abroad
The reality of year-round fire risk has been demonstrated brutally both overseas and at home. In January of last year, California learned that winter offers no guarantee of safety. The Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires, ignited by faulty power lines and driven by Santa Ana winds, destroyed over 16,000 structures and claimed 19 lives, becoming the costliest in US history.
Closer to home, in August 2018, a fire sparked in the hinterland behind Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast. Fanned by relentless dry, westerly winds, it raced towards the coast, claiming the life of a water-bombing helicopter pilot and shattering the illusion of a fire-free winter. For locals, it was a permanent awakening to the fact that embers can glow in any season.
The morning after the recent heatwave broke brought another unwelcome hallmark of Australian summers: smoke. Haze from the Victorian fires, carried north by southerly winds, stung the eyes of residents in New South Wales, a tangible and irritating reminder that the impacts of major blazes are rarely contained by state borders.
The events have sparked urgent conversations about national preparedness. Key questions are being asked: Is Australia doing enough to mitigate the risk posed by extreme heat events? Have fuel reduction efforts been sufficient in vulnerable areas? And, most poignantly, have the hard lessons of the Black Summer led to lasting change, or have we allowed complacency to creep back in?
