The bushfire in the north of the Byron Shire will remain active for some time and could flare up again suddenly, according to those fighting the blaze.
More than two weeks after the fire began in bushland behind the Byron Arts and Industrial Estate, a representative from the Main Arm rural fire brigade said it was now ‘in the peat’.
This means that while the immediate danger has passed, the fire is continuing to smoulder in the earth, a situation that is not uncommon for bushfires that have burnt for an extended period at high intensity.
The local fire brigade representative said that it was virtually impossible for the smouldering fire to be put out by humans.
‘Fires in this state continue to be active,’ he said.
‘They can pop up again like unwanted houseguests.’
‘Unless we get 60-70mm of rain we’ll need to stay vigilant.’
The representative said fire fighters were still active on the site, and would continue to be so for some time.
‘We’ll be using smaller trucks to get right in the forest there.’
‘It’s an opportunity for residents to revisit and look at their fire plans.’
Meanwhile the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital said it had seen some wildlife that was injured in the fire.
‘Last week, we treated some eastern long-necked turtles brought in by a member of the public from outside the fire zone, with smoke inhalation related illness,’ Dr Bree Talbot told The Echo.
‘They are currently in care’.
‘There was also a swamp wallaby, which had to be euthanised after trying to escape through barbed wire’.
‘We know that there are some macropods with burns still mobile, but access to the fire zone is still limited by the incident controller for safety reasons,’ she said.
‘It’s usually a couple of weeks after the fires that we see the real impact on wildlife’.
“the immediate danger has passed,” and it’s only incinerating what’s left of our irreplaceable biosystem.
….And “‘Unless we get 60-70mm of rain we’ll need to stay vigilant.’” because the RFS are powerless to do anything useful.
A couple of dozen animals are in care and thousands or hundreds of thousands have been torched, but NO infrastructure damage.
Cheers, G”)
Once it’s incinerated, you’ll stop banging on about it, right? We are getting storms out here, a week later than I predicted, so theoretically, you should have rain soon, or ‘flooding climate event’ as you like to call it.
I think its time some real money was spent to find options for homeless folk (and tourists).
The spot behind the dunes north of Elements had numerous trails and campsites, with campfires- when I lived in Sunrise 7 years ago. Asking people to please be fire aware and not light fires in the bush or on the beach near dunes was useless. There must be a big community there now due to the excellent grapevine that operates around town. Its a pity there’s no grapevine teaching visitors how crucial it is to be fire aware.
Why can’t we find some positive option to house these people? (No more of those pod disasters please!)
What about finally making Island Quarry a good thing for the community? It was set aside for community use years ago. There could be a mixed use development providing shelter and permanent housing for a variety of people? It could/should also be combined with ecotourism facilities so visitors can learn about this beautiful area. I’d hate to see Island Quarry end up absorbed into some developer’s pocket rather than used for community as intended.