Drought brings 'staggering fire behaviour'



Firefighting authorities say they have been staggered by changes to fire behaviour because of ongoing drought in South Australia. As the official fire ban season ends for some SA regions, Country Fire Service deputy state coordinator Brenton Eden says the drought has created a whole new set of firefighting conditions. He says even the most experienced firefighters have struggled at times.

"We have been staggered by the fire behaviour we've seen," he said. "We've seen fire behaviour that career firefighters have been unlikely to see and certainly haven't expected in the fires that we have had. "Previously firefighters would be very confident that this fire would trickle through the grassland and be easily contained - they're seeing fire behaviour where it's just ripping up the bark of trees and into the canopies." One of the worst bushfire locations of the past season in SA was on Kangaroo Island where blazes consumed a wide area.

_{Bron: ABC} | Gewijzigd: 24 april 2017, 10:38 uur, door Joyce.s