 The effect of previous prescribed burns in slowing the 2019–20 Australian fires and assisting fire suppression efforts remains unclear, although in many instances the fires were observed to burn through cleared agricultural land and forest recently affected by unplanned and prescribed burns, owing to the extreme weather conditions and dryness of vegetation.Of particular note, the damaging Currowan fire burnt through a large area of Morton National Park subject in 2017 to one of the largest prescribed burns ever successfully conducted in NSW.In relation to the blame of prescribed burning, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science David Bowman stated "These are very tired and very old conspiracy theories that get a run after most major fires," and that they were "an obvious attempt to deflect the conversation away from climate change."