Canberra residents may know a little about what Los Angeles is go through. Exactly 22 years ago, a forest fire in the Australian capital developed into a devastating city fire.
On January 18, 2003, what began as a bushfire – as it is known in Australia – sparked by a lightning strike in the surrounding mountain ranges, quickly moved into residential suburbs, driven by strong gusts. The trees and grasses that gave the city its nickname “bush capital” served as food, but were ready to burn down due to the drought of the previous year.
The infernowhich burned for five days and saw 18-mile-wide walls of flames, killing four people, injuring hundreds and destroying more than 480 homes in the city of half a million people.
A firefighter attends a fire near Wooroloo, northeast of Perth, Australia, on February 2, 2021.
(Evan Collis/Associated Press)
Together with that 2019-2020 bushfire season The 2003 fires, known as the Black Summer, which killed 34 people across the country and destroyed more than 3,000 homes, remain a painful memory for many Australians.
“It looked like it was raining fire because there were so many embers and there were very, very strong winds,” said Rohan Scott, a firefighter on the scene at the time.
Today Scott is chief of the Australian Capital Territory Rural Fire Service, which oversees Canberra's remote regions.
The Times spoke with him about the 2003 tragedy and how it changed the city's approach to fire safety. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you respond to the LA fires? Did anything remind you of Canberra in 2003?
If you look at the devastation and the conditions, just the fire behavior, the wind, there are similarities.
If a house burned in 2003, we had to leave the house burning. We had to protect the one next to it because the wind was so strong. Even if we had a truck at every house, I would probably say we would still have lost houses.
I think the firefighters in LA did an exceptional job given the winds. People need to understand that this ember is really, really small. They penetrate into the smallest cavities of a house, once they are grabbed it is gone.
How did the 2003 fire change Australian firefighting? Fire protection?
We now have what are called asset protection zones and bushfire management standards. Between a house and the vegetation, there must be an area that requires maintenance. So if it is a grass buffer, it needs to be mowed and kept at a certain level. When trees are present, the fuel load of the trees must be maintained at a certain level.
We also have bushfire modeling software and know where a fire will spread in a bushfire-prone area. And now when you build on these lands, there is a certain standard that your house has to be built to. There are certain building materials you need to use to make it more fire resistant.
I myself live in an area prone to bushfires and am building a patio next to my house. I do not use a wooden product but a renewable plastic product as it is not a fire hazard.
A helicopter drops fire retardant on a fire near Wooroloo, northeast of Perth, Australia, on February 2, 2021.
(Evan Collis/Associated Press)
How strictly are these vegetation management regulations enforced?
Our bushfire management standards are laws – they are the law. In fact, as a fire department, we go out and check the bushfire suppression zones and asset protection zones.
We also have teams that go out and remove the vegetation: the dead leaves, the dead sticks and branches that are on the ground.
And when rebuilding a property, we encourage people to grow certain types of plants that are less susceptible to fire.
Los Angeles was reluctant to use controlled burns to reduce fuel buildup. What is Canberra doing about this?
It is just one of many tools we can use.
Although it reduces fuel consumption, it is only possible under certain weather conditions. The wind has to blow in the right places. Otherwise it will either be too effective and actually destroy the environment. Or it may not be effective because it doesn't burn hot enough.
Wildfires in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia, are seen in a satellite image taken Jan. 4, 2020.
(NASA/Associated Press)
In a typical fire, hazard reduction burns would slow progression, but we're only talking about these surface and ground fuels here. If it's a large, powerful fire in the canopy, you can't reduce the fuel – it would spread fire anyway.
Grazing is another option, particularly when there are noxious weeds. In some areas here we have really thick native blackberry bushes. They have used herds of goats to reduce fuel consumption without the need for combustion and without polluting the environment. Goats eat everything. They just love eating these weeds. So it's a win-win situation.
What changes have been made to preparing communities for fires?
Every piece of land in the Capital Territory has a fire risk reduction plan or a plan for what we would do in the event of an incident, whether it is state land, private land or rural farmland.
It is a shared responsibility between the community and the fire department. For you as a homeowner, we ask you to prepare your property as best as possible. This includes cleaning your gutters, removing all combustible materials from around your home, and ensuring that no embers can penetrate your roof or other voids in your building. Make sure you have a hose that goes all the way around.
We now expect you to implement your fire safety plan. This fire plan is to either leave early or stay and defend. If you have one Evacuation bagYou should have these products in it: cell phone, important papers, medication. How long does it take to move your pet? Take that into account.
What about evacuation orders like in Los Angeles?
Evictions We don't normally do that here in Canberra.
Then you are putting people at risk because you are asking them to leave and it may be too late to leave. On the other hand, if they stay and defend themselves, they are prepared and we make sure they have garden hoses, buckets and water supplies, their own personal protection.
A firefighting aircraft dumps fire extinguishing agent on a fire near Wooroloo, northeast of Perth, Australia, on February 4, 2021.
(DFES/Associated Press)
Having a well-prepared property and knowing exactly what you will do in the event of a fire as a family unit means I can use my firefighting resources to put out the fire rather than trying to save you.
Both the LA and Canberra fires were unprecedented events, raising difficult questions about prevention. How much public money should we spend on protection against rare events?
Look here and we had these really bad fires in 2003. We had the 2019-2020 fires as another once in a generation fire. Now I have experienced two once-in-a-generation fires in my life.
Our biggest challenge is Climate changeUnfortunately. The fire intervals are getting smaller and smaller. In the past, fire intervals were 20 to 30 odd years, which have now been reduced to 15 and may even fall to seven years or less. As a result, large fires occur more frequently and vegetation grows back more quickly due to the changing climate.
So we don't know what's next. All we can do is try to manage the risk.
Australia and California have historically seen this helped each other with each other's fires because their fire seasons did not overlap. Can this regulation remain in place since both locations are now at risk of fire all year round?
We are in fire season, but that shouldn't stop anyone from asking for help. We will definitely be able to offer resources where we can.
But you made a good point. We're used to getting some of our aircraft from the Northern Hemisphere because they did the fire season in the North and then landed in the Southern Hemisphere. This is now starting to overlap.