THE 2019/20 fire danger season officially finished at midnight last night, finalising one of the busiest seasons in our history.
The Country Fire Service really started our season in September, more than a month before our own season officially started, as a horrendous start to the season in Queensland and New South Wales saw local crews stretched to their limits.
Over the next three months until after Christmas, CFS dedicated more than 1300 volunteer firefighter and incident management personnel to help these two states battle unprecedented bushfires.
Unfortunately this was only the start of our efforts this season with our own fires burning in catastrophic conditions near Port Lincoln and Yorketown in
November, followed by the large fires in Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island in December and January.
These were only a handful of the thousands of fires our CFS volunteers attended throughout the fire season with large fires in every Region from Keilira in the
South East, Coonalpyn, Miltalie on the Eyre Peninsula and unfortunately too many others to name.
I dearly hope that more normal times will resume once the coronavirus crisis has passed but South Australians can be assured that its firefighters remain ready and available to answer calls for help whatever the challenges we face.
I took up the role of chief officer in October last year and was very quickly impressed by the professionalism and commitment of our many volunteers.
This year in particular they gave up so much of their time, put their lives on the line and worked so hard to not only protect their local communities but travel throughout South Australia and interstate to help others.
Thanks must also go to the South Australian community who heeded our warning messages at the beginning of the season and prepared their homes against bushfire threat.
Unfortunately too many homes were lost with a total of 179 burned this season, many simply because of the ferocity of the fires.
The CFS bitterly regrets those losses and the tragic loss of three South Australians during the worst of the Fire Danger Season.
The community also listened and acted when we issued warning messages.
Those three lives lost to bushfires this year is three too many.
However, I am thankful that we were able to provide timely and accurate warnings to the communities impacted so they could make safe decisions for themselves and their families.
Thank you also to the communities for supporting us and each other throughout the fires.
To see the generosity to our firefighters, especially on Christmas Day brought warmth to the heart.
Thank you to all of those who have since had bake sales, fundraisers or simply donated to the CFS Foundation.
That money will go towards supporting our volunteers in their time of need.
I also want to thank CFS staff and our supporting agencies, SA Metropolitan Fire Services, SA State Emergency Service, Department for Environment and
Water, SAPOL and all other organisations who contributed.
The ability for those staff to get on with the job and provide results is testament to their abilities. At the moment we are continuing to help South Australians by being embedded in the State Command Centre for Health, managing the COVID-19 pandemic in this state.
Only days after the request came through, our teams were at SA Health to support them as they faced a health emergency of unknown scale and duration.
We knew anything we could do to support them as the control agency had to be a good thing.
Of course the work does not end here.
Our volunteers continue to attend structure fires, hazardous material incident, road crashes and to assist other agencies, as their work continues.
I thank them for their amazing efforts and urge the community to continue to practice fire safety as we move into the winter months and be careful on our roads.
I dearly hope that more normal times will resume once the Coronavirus crisis has passed but South Australians can be assured that its firefighters remain ready and available to answer calls for help whatever the challenges we face.
Mark Jones,
SA Country Fire Service chief officer
