NSW Bushfire Inquiry 2020

Given the unprecedented bushfires during the 2019-20 bushfire season, the NSW Government commissioned an independent expert inquiry. To ensure the inquiry has actionable, evidence based and rigorous information, the Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub supporting the Inquiry by providing analysis, technical and scientific advice and recommendations. The analysis included input from DPIE and RFS fire researchers. The work took the full commitment of the Hub for 3 months.

The Hub addressed the following Inquiry themes and questions:

Theme 1

Historical and seasonal context of the 2019-20 NSW Bushfires

• Was fire weather more severe than historical conditions, and were records broken in the number of repeated ‘bad days’?
• Was fuel dryness leading up to the 2019-20 bushfire season in NSW unprecedented?
• Were fuel loads higher than usual leading up to the 2019-20 bushfire season in NSW?
• What were the major causes of ignitions during the 2019-20 fire season, and were patterns of dry lightning storms different to previous years?

Theme 2

Fire Severity and Behaviour

• Did this fire event produce an unusual number of pyrocumulonimbus events, and what were the specific atmospheric and fire weather conditions that enabled their occurrence?
• Does hazard reduction burning induce a measurable reduction in wildfire intensity, and does this hold for extreme fire weather conditions?
• Does land use (forestry, logging) induce a measurable reduction in wildfire intensity, and does this hold for extreme fire weather conditions?

Theme 3

Probability of loss/damage to life and property

• What are the determinants of losses and damage to built assets?
• What are the physical and social factors leading to bushfire fatalities?
• What are the environmental and social determinants of losses and damage to life and property?
• What was the magnitude of the health impacts attributable to fire smoke during the 2019/2020 season and how do these impacts distribute geographically and temporally within New South Wales?
• What is the impact of extreme fire severity on species and communities? – case studies
• What is the impact of high fire frequency on species and communities? – case studies
• What are the effects of the 2019/20 fires on the environment?

Theme 4

Options for bushfire risk management in the future

• How will the implied reduction in fuel loads due to the 2019-20 NSW bushfires influence the future trajectory of risk to life, property and environmental values?

Outcomes

View NSW Bushfire Hub reports and seminars produced for the inquiry here.