{"id":494754,"date":"2026-01-05T19:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494754\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:31:10","slug":"outskirts-of-australian-cities-at-risk-of-catastrophic-fires-on-scale-of-deadly-la-blazes-study-finds-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494754\/","title":{"rendered":"Outskirts of Australian cities at risk of catastrophic fires on scale of deadly LA blazes, study finds | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many Australian cities share common traits that made the deadly 2025 Los Angeles fires so destructive, according to analysis into whether a similar disaster could occur here in future.<\/p>\n

At least 6.9 million Australians living on the fringes of capital cities were at risk, according to a report by the Climate Council and Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, challenging assumptions that bushfires are a regional or rural concern.<\/p>\n

Residents on the outskirts of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart were exposed, the report said, particularly in suburbs bordered by bush or grassland.<\/p>\n

It estimated that up to 90% of homes in these areas were built prior to modern bushfire standards \u2013 making ignition due to ember attack and house-to-house fire spread more likely.<\/p>\n

The findings were a \u201cwake up call\u201d, said former NSW fire commissioner and report co-author Greg Mullins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you live in suburbia and think bushfires don\u2019t concern you, think again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warning came amid forecasts for extreme fire danger across parts of South Australia and Victoria this week, with southern states facing the most significant heatwave conditions<\/a> since black summer.<\/p>\n

Mullins said the wildfires that whipped through Los Angeles neighbourhoods in January last year \u2013 claiming 31 lives and destroying 16,000 buildings \u2013 left many Australians wondering whether the same thing could happen here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose fires burned in winter driven by hurricane-strength winds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the lead up to LA\u2019s catastrophic event, Mullins said the city had experienced \u201cclimate whiplash\u201d with wet years fuelling explosive growth in vegetation, followed by an extremely dry period.<\/p>\n

That combined with extreme Santa Ana winds, which helped drive fires from the brush into suburbia.<\/p>\n

Nearly every Australian capital city had a similar mix of dangerous preconditions for a catastrophic fire like LA, he said. They included dry periods and parched forests and bushland, worsening fire weather, the potential for strong wind gusts, steep slopes and large tracts of bush adjacent to homes.<\/p>\n

Parts of Sydney, like the Northern Beaches, Penrith and the Blue Mountains, were a \u201cticking timebomb\u201d, he said, with massive fuel loads built up after years of rain.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, numerous suburbs bordered grasslands where fires could move quickly and be difficult to control. Other capitals faced similar risks.<\/p>\n

\"SmokeSmoke haze smothers Sydney skyline as bushfire season begins \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Nelli Stevenson lives on the western fringe of Melbourne, not far from about 230 square kilometres of \u201ctinder-dry grassland and farmland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stevenson said she worried about the risk of bushfire, particularly the associated smoke, given her four-year-old son was particularly prone to respiratory infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s been playing on my mind ever since I had children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about people at risk of bushfires, you\u2019re usually thinking about people in the bush,\u201d she said. \u201cI technically live in Melbourne, and we\u2019re still at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer\u2019s outlook<\/a> identified elevated risk in western and southern Western Australia, central northern New South Wales, and southern part of Victoria, with long term rainfall deficits across southern states.<\/p>\n

A rare sudden stratospheric warming<\/a> event had also led to hotter and drier conditions than expected, Mullins said.<\/p>\n

It was critical to \u201cturn down the heat\u201d, he said, with stronger action to cut fossil fuel emissions.<\/p>\n

The report called for greater investment in disaster preparedness, and increased capacity for emergency services and land managers at the urban fringe.<\/p>\n

Mullins added that greater investment was needed to retrofit houses and infrastructure, to bring those most at risk up to modern bushfire standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019ll scare people,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I hope they get past that, and [say] we have to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Australian cities share common traits that made the deadly 2025 Los Angeles fires so destructive, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":494755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-494754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115844158814488312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}