New South Wales Bushfire Inquiry Report

New South Wales (NSW) must prepare for similar or worse years following the extreme 2019-20 bushfire season, with increased hazard-reduction burning offering only limited help as the climate continues to warm, the NSW Bushfire Inquiry has found.
The Inquiry assessed 1967 submissions and considered a season that involved 11,774 incidents, the deaths of more than two dozen people, destruction of 2476 homes, with more than 5.5 million hectares (13.75 million acres) burnt.

The Inquiry’s report noted last season was "extreme, and extremely unusual". 

"It showed us bushfires through forested regions on a scale that we have not seen in Australia in recorded history.”
"The season showed us what damage megafires can do and how dangerous they can be for communities and firefighters and it is clear that we should expect fire seasons like 2019-20, or potentially worse, to happen again.”

"Climate change as a result of increased greenhouse gas emissions clearly played a role in the conditions that led up to the fires and in the unrelenting conditions that supported the fires to spread, but climate change does not explain everything that happened."
The inquiry's recommendations include "more emphasis on getting fires out early (this certainly may have saved us as ‘our’ fire burnt for a week, albeit in inaccessible country, before turning nasty), improved backburning protocols, training and information around heavy plant use, the right mix of aerial fire fighting assets and increased aerial night fire fighting.”

The 76 recommendations made have been accepted by the current NSW Berejiklian government.

The government has already allocated $45 million more to help prepare for the next fire season. More funds would be needed to implement the recommendations, which include improving the safety of fire trucks and issuing more protective gear to firefighters.