Western Downs bushfires symbolic of increasing ferocity of fires in Queensland

Mr Gillespie said the fire at Miles became pyroconvective, developing its own dangerous weather system.

"The actual intensity of that fire, it was at such a stage that at one point, they said it was just too dangerous to fight it," he said. "The intensity of the bushfires that we're getting are to a point where, sometimes, there's just nothing you can do."

That was backed up by Joanne Greenfield, chief officer of the Rural Fire Service, who said the conditions last Sunday coalesced quickly, giving the fire the 'lungs' it needed.

"We knew the conditions were there for that to happen and it played out," she said.

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That was the frightening case for one couple who live about 10 kilometres north east of Miles, who watched the fire explode before their eyes.

Mr and Mrs Davies saw mention of a fire on social media early last Monday morning but couldn't see much evidence of it when they first looked outside.

"The whole area was tinder dry though - the wind got amongst it and it started roaring through the ironbark and pine," Mrs Davies said. "The wind was very strong all day - it ended up burning about 20,000 acres."

Mrs Davies said her husband had seen a lot of bushfires in his years living in the region but had never seen one take hold like that.

"We were extremely worried, not for ourselves, it was blowing away from us that day," she said.

"One other year, 2004, a big fire came down from the north.

"We were not told to evacuate that time but we were this year."

The next few days were sleepless as they moved between putting in fire breaks and fighting fires on two fronts, making sure cattle on agistment were mustered to a safe area, and moving between their home and a cabin in Miles as the fires continually flared and died down.

"My husband didn't get in until 1am on Monday, and last night it was after 1am," Mrs Davies said on Wednesday. "It's OK now - I think they're finally getting on top of it. It was just so massively hot and windy."

She said they hadn't lost any country themselves at that stage but it was still too early to say they wouldn't, while the fire continued to burn.

"We had the best rain in our lives last year, 901.5mm, but there's been no rain this year, and the heat really dried everything off," she said.

Ms Greenfield, who is also a QFES deputy commissioner, said while the conditions were "pretty unusual" on the day the fire took hold, they were expecting a bigger bushfire season this year than last year.

Speaking from western Queensland, where they were undertaking a tour of volunteer brigades, she said they could see the bushfire risk this season and next season had changed, which was why they were out engaging with those preparing for the increasing risk.

"There's some great knowledge and experience - our aim is to build on that," she said. "Now's the time to do that."

She said that volunteers from western Queensland were joining those fighting fires in south west Queensland, which would give them practical experience and build up their skills after a decade of drought and no grassfires in their area.

Mrs Davies said they'd worked alongside firefighters from Townsville, Mount Isa, Cairns and Inglewood.

"Some were individual firefighters who just rocked up," she said.

Superintendent Gillespie said the fire service was more prepared now, in terms of capability, to deploy rapidly, than it had ever been.

"And this is a real focus of the organisation," he said.

"It's not just about the equipment, it's about how we use that equipment and it's about where we place that equipment, and everything's got to be done safely.

"We've got to put THE best incident management people in there.

"Combine that with local knowledge of people that know and understand the land, put those two things together with a high level of firefighting and community engagement, so the community knows what's going on."

Mr Gillespie said it was to be expected that communities would be taken by surprise when they hadn't seen bushfires of the magnitude of this week's fires on the Downs, for the last 30 years.

Rural Fire Brigades Association of Queensland general manager Justin Choveaux, also touring western Queensland, said the fire danger rating put out in June last year clearly identified that part of south west Queensland as a higher risk for bushfires.

"We're seeing brigades now, we've got them flying down from Cairns, Atherton Tablelands, Townsville, they're driving across from Gladstone - this is really an example of neighbour helping neighbour writ large, which is what rural fires is all about," he said. "Thirty thousand people, 3500 slip-ons, over 1000 trucks - that's big scale that you can throw at a problem.

He said the scale of a bushfire came down to landholder preparation.

"Who owns the risk, who owns the fuel is the person who owns the land," he said.

"You also own the responsibility of making preparation for the fire, that's your obligation to your neighbour.

"Rural fire brigades are just there to help, we are supporting the community."