Managing Fire Regimes for Conservation and Property Protection: an Australian Response

smoke, the sound of sirens, and constant news reports of evacuations, houses burned, houses saved, and national parks "destroyed." The news reports quickly spread across the globe, depicting the emergency as "a fire front stretching 60 km from the Blue Mountains to Wollongong and advancing towards Sydney." Although reports like these were exaggerated, the fires that ringed Sydney were as intense as any in memory, driven by hot, dry conditions and strong, changing winds. In 2 weeks in New South Wales, over 500,000 ha of native vegetation were burned, much of it in national parks and other conservation areas.