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Australians warned to brace for threatening bushfire season

Xinhua, October 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Victorians have been warned to prepare for a bushfire season that will pose a significant threat.

Emergency services said recent unseasonal heavy rainfall would raise, not hinder, the threat of bushfires due to substantial growth in grass and other vegetation state-wide.

Victoria's Deputy Premier and Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said the state should be ready for an "above average" bushfire season in January and February.

"I know it's been raining, I know it's wet, but that means growth. And growth means fire danger - so we need to start thinking about the upcoming fire season right now," Fairfax Media quoted Merlino as saying on Tuesday.

He stressed that being prepared could be the difference between life and death once fire season began.

"Get rid of the dry grass, get rid of the twigs, get rid of any flammable material around your home, clean your gutters, cut down those overhanging branches. Do those practical things around your home that will make a difference if there is a fire in your community," he said.

Craig Lapsley, Victoria's Emergency Services Commissioner, said the state's central and western regions have been identified as high-risk areas when bushfire season begins in January and February.

"The key issue for Victoria is central and western Victoria, where the grasslands meet the bush and where the grasslands meet communities," Lapsley said.

Lapsley praised the state's fleet of 48 fire-fighting aircraft as "very practical, very responsive, but one of the best fleets that we'll see across the world."

Victoria experienced an early start to bushfire season in 2015, with four families losing their homes in the small country town of Benloch, 100 km north of Melbourne.

Upwards of 150 residential properties were destroyed by bushfires in the 2015/2016 bushfire season but no lives were lost. Endit