The ACT may not have dodged a bullet during the summer fire season but it certainly dodged a lightning bolt - or two - according to ACT Emergency Services Agency's Commissioner Dominic Lane.
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Commissioner Lane said that on January 18, the 11th anniversary of the devastating 2003 fires, thunderstorms had ignited fires down the south coast and in the Alps around Tumbarumba and Tumut.
''Units from the ACT were sent to fight these fires,'' he said. ''Fortunately there was only one lightning strike in the ACT and our crews were all over it.''
Planning for the worst is an ongoing process and the Emergency Services Agency is carrying out public consultations as part of the review of the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan.
On Tuesday night Commissioner Lane and senior members of his team will be at the Rivers Brigade volunteers shed, Cotter Road, for a public consultation session beginning at 6pm.
On Thursday night they will be at the Jerrabomberra Brigade shed, Jerrabomberra Avenue, again at 6pm.
''Unless conditions warrant a change the ACT bushfire season will recommence on October 1, 2014,'' Commissioner Lane said.
''You look around today at how lush and green everything is and it is hard to remember just how dry it was a couple of months ago.''
The transformation has been so dramatic ACT authorities have begun controlled burns weeks before the bushfire season officially ended on Monday.
Commissioner Lane makes no apologies for the early start to the fuel reduction program. He argues that if the conditions are right then you should go for it; there is no guarantee the opportunity will be there tomorrow.
For a controlled burn to be successful it cannot be too dry because of the risk the fire might get away or too wet because in that case it will not burn hot enough to destroy the fuel on the ground.
Commissioner Lane said the relatively low number of fires and attendant damage were not indications that the risk this summer had been less than in previous years.
There were only five total fire ban days in the 2012-13 season compared to six this season, for example.
Many lessons had been learnt during the past 11 years and many plans were in place on each of these fire ban days.