Nearly all NSW homes lost in Black Summer were close to bushland, study finds

Almost all of the 2,475 homes destroyed in New South Wales during Australia's Black Summer bushfires were less than 100 metres from flammable vegetation such as trees, new research has found. The analysis put the share at 94%, underlining how close most losses were to bushland.

The fires of 2019 and 2020 destroyed more than 3,000 homes across Australia, took 33 lives and killed or displaced almost 3 billion native animals, according to reporting on the study The Guardian.

The research on house-loss patterns was published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire. It was led by Associate Professor Owen Price, a bushfire risk expert at the University of Wollongong.

The 100-metre distance matters for planning. It is a key part of bushfire prone land maps used by firefighters to plan outreach and by planning authorities to assess bushfire resistance for new homes and renovations.

The study also found limits to that buffer. When the Forest Fire Danger Index reached extreme or catastrophic conditions, houses further than 100 metres away were burning.

The NSW Rural Fire Service said the findings reinforced that homes in high-risk areas should be built to higher fire construction standards The Guardian.