Yes, and whichever way you go, decent firebreaks that are kept clear of fuel are essential, especially around villages/towns. In both Oz and USA the firebreaks don't appear to have been working, or have not existed, or have not been monitored sufficiently to deal with the odd spark that gets across.
So, Nigel, once again you express a disparaging, blame-the-victim attitude towards the USA and Australia, this time with a false and ill-informed narrative about firebreaks suggesting they either do not exist or have
"not been monitored sufficiently" to deal with the
"odd spark that gets across".
It's interesting too that once again, you ignore the fact that
The UK has had more wildfires in 2019 than any year on record! (and this record was achieved only four months into the year!) and 2019 saw the highest winter temperatures ever recorded in the UK and 2019 broke the previous record number of wildfires from the preceding 2018 season. Perhaps some properly maintained firebreaks would have been in order?
While there is much debate about the appropriate forestry practices in Australia and the USA for fire protection and suppression, firebreaks have been in widespread use to mitigate forest fires since the nineteenth century and earlier. While they can indeed work quite well, they are certainly not a panacea. Additionally, unlike the UK, both the USA and Australia are geographically huge countries where maintaining adequate firebreaks in all locations at all times is virtually impossible due to limitations in resources, manpower and budget.
Typically, firebreaks are built to the width of two large bulldozer blades. Anything wider is usually impractical although it is done on occasion. Where possible, well-maintained roads, lakes, streams, and green areas are often used as firebreaks. But even if firebreaks were built literally everywhere they would be of limited effectiveness in a major conflagration such as the 2018 Camp and Woolsey fires in California or the current bushfires in Australia. To date, the fires in Australia have consumed 26,000,000 acres, which is many times the size of the otherwise enormous 2018 California fires which decimated 1,893,913 acres. Only so many firebreaks can be constructed and maintained over such vast areas of forest and bush country.
Your notion Nigel that
"decent firebreaks" would "
deal with the odd spark that gets across" is laughably naive and woefully misinformed. "
Odd spark"? Good lord, man!
Burning embers and other debris are one of the primary reasons wildfires spread the way they do with such speed and destructive power. In places like California where the fire season goes hand in hand with the
Santa Ana Winds, once a major fire begins, strong winds can toss firebrands for great distances shifting in many directions. To make matters worse, much worse actually, major bushfires, wildfires and forest fires literally generate their own weather systems with gale force winds which can blow burning embers literally for miles. These self generated winds become literal
firestorms. Wildfires in the form of firestorms have been known to jump across lakes, rivers and large barren areas such as parking lots. Fire generated winds have been known to rip entire trees out of the ground and fling them (or parts of them such as branches or logs) for hundreds of feet.
It gets worse! Such firestorms often create "
Fire whirls", literal tornadoes of fire that can shoot flames hundreds of feet in the air and generate temperatures of greater than 2,000 °F (1,090 °C). Some have been recorded that are 1km high generating wind speeds in excess of 200 km/h (120 mph)!
These fierce winds and fire vortexes are what we are witnessing in Australia and previously in California. The town of Paradise, CA was lost to a ferocious, fast moving firestorm and the firebreaks that were already in place were useless in the face of such a conflagration.
See:
Why Embers Cause the Most Damage in Wildfires
So,
"firebreaks don't appear to have been working, or have not existed, or have not been monitored sufficiently to deal with the ODD SPARK that gets across". Really, Nigel?
Fire fighters refer to these event as "
Ember Attacks" as they overwhelm firebreaks. Embers like this can set a house or an entire neighborhood on fire, often in minutes.