Australian inferno previews fire-prone future

CLIMATE change is ramping up fire risk around the world. In Australia, home to some of the most fire-prone regions on Earth, the bush fires raging now could be a taster of what's to come.

Parts of the world where the fire risk is rising can learn from Australia's experience, says John Handmer, director of the Centre for Risk and Community at RMIT University in Melbourne. A good place to start would be "uninhabitable zones" - places where the fire risk is so high no homes should be built.

Such zones became a reality after "black Saturday" in 2009, when fires killed 173 people and destroyed over 2000 homes in the state of Victoria alone. A royal commission recommended a "retreat and resettlement" strategy for areas of "unacceptable fire risk". Under a voluntary buy-back scheme, the state bought more than 100 properties destroyed in the fires, and new buildings in high-risk areas now require a special permit.

Handmer says Australia should be mapped based on fire risk, and the government should buy up the spots that are too dangerous for houses. North-facing ridges or gullies, where we know fires tend to funnel, should be considered out of bounds for housing development.

Many of these areas have been developed in the absence of such policies, he warns. "They're setting us up for the catastrophes of the future."

There is little doubt that climate change is already making fires more likely in Australia, says Andy Pitman of the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Australians were warned that they faced the highest ever risk this year. A couple of wet years led to extra growth in forests and grasslands, then a record heatwave dried everything out, turning it into a tinderbox.

read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729004.400-australian-inferno-previews-fireprone-future.html