'There's green in it but see that straw colour? That's ready to burn,' he told AFP. There are fears Australia's volunteer firefighters may not be able to cope if climate change makes fires even more intense and frequent.ĭriving through Picton, as kangaroos hop along in front of houses lit up by the late afternoon sun, Hain points at the grass growing along the roadside. I don't think that's sustainable,' said Andy Hain, a 41-year-old volunteer with the NSW Rural Fire Service, who is married with two young sons.įaced with repeated fires on the scale of the 'Black Summer', Australia and other countries would have to share personnel and resources more than they do already, said Hain, who has volunteered for nearly 10 years in Picton, a rural town southwest of Sydney with a population of about 5,000.īecause of wet conditions since 'Black Summer', the RFS warns that the threat of grass fires is the highest it has been in two decades. 'It's terrifying but, if 2019-20 became the norm, I don't know how you sustain that year on year. Their courage was on display during the 'Black Summer' fires of 2019-2020 that killed 33 people and millions of animals, as well as destroying thousands of homes and razing vast swathes of eucalyptus forest.īut some of them fear their brigades may not be able to cope in the future should global warming make fires even more intense and frequent. Deadly wildfires have devastated forests in Canada, Greece, Hawaii and elsewhere around the world this year but unlike many other countries, Australia heavily relies on a 190,000-strong volunteer cohort to battle the flames.

Firefighter sign