Answer:

Basically the hippies in the green party protested planned burns. This happens every few generations somehow. Our land mostly evolved to catch fire all the time, some plants even require fire to germinate and spread their seed. This has been happening for atleast 40,000 years as our aboriginals used to ise fire to hunt animals. In the modern age people somehow keep forgetting this fact, so the country will catch on fire, then we start a policy of clearing certain areas and burning others in a controlled manner. Sometimes you would burn the major areas around a town so if a big fire did happen there would be nothing left to catch on fire. Over time either new towns show up or policies get lax, then the undergrowth build up untill a hot day and some sparks set the whole place alight. So the green party here protests planned burns which prevent catastrophe and then when it happens blame it on climate change. Yes climate change is real but not because the idiots here tried to pretend fire isn't a thing. That all being said this year os one of the worst by area, a lot of land has been burned down but it only takes a few years to recover as all the native plants and animals are used to this sort of thing.