What damage can be caused as a result of bushfires?

I live in Australia and bushfires are fairly common here.

Here is some information from an Australian website: (the address at the end)

In severe fire seasons the damage caused by bushfires is astronomical. In the 2002 Canberra fire disaster, for example, the cost to insurers alone was $257 million (The West Australian, 13 Feb, 2003). The total cost of the fires, including the cost of suppression measures and lost productivity, would be much greater than this figure. Add to it the loss of life, personal trauma, loss of invaluable personal possessions and destruction of scientific equipment and data from the Mt Stromlo Observatory, and the ramifications of such disasters start to become apparent. And it does not end with the direct impacts of the fire. We all lose financially because the inevitable consequence of any large disaster is a rise in insurance premiums.

How much better then, if we can avoid, or at least minimise the risk, of such disasters