Almost 70% of the Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) pastures, pine plantations, and nature parks were severely damaged,[1] and most of the Mount Stromlo Observatory was destroyed.

Over the next ten hours, four people died, over 490 were injured, and 470 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, requiring a significant relief and reconstruction effort.

On 13 January, a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter that had been waterbombing the fires in the forests west of Canberra crashed into Bendora Dam with one person, pilot Duncan Patrick, injured.

The unconscious pilot had been pulled from the sinking wreckage by a SouthCare rescue helicopter medical crewman Euan McKenzie, but due to the weight of his clothes and lack of life vest, was unable to be dragged from the water.

McKenzie received the society's highest award, the Bravery Cross,[9] which recognises undertaking a rescue in an aquatic environment under circumstances that endanger the rescuer's life.

For example, one point of the release stated that bushfire logistical support staging areas were being relocated from Bulls Head and Orroral Valley (far outside urban Canberra) to the North Curtin District Playing Fields (far inside urban Canberra),[12] signalling both a major retreat by fire fighters and pointing to imminent danger to the city itself.

By 9 am on the morning of Saturday 18 January, burned leaves appeared on lawns in houses in the Weston Creek, Kambah, and Tuggeranong suburbs bordering the western extremity of Canberra.

By mid-afternoon, it had become apparent that the fires posed an immediate threat to the settlements near Canberra, such as Uriarra and Stromlo, as well as to the houses on the city's urban-bushland interface.

These advisories, accompanied by the Emergency Warning Signal stated that a significant "deterioration" of the fire situation in the ACT had occurred and placed several suburbs on alert to evacuate.

Due to fire damage to infrastructure and extreme winds bringing down powerlines across the area, large parts of the city lost power.

By 5 pm, houses were reported destroyed in Duffy, Chapman, Kambah, Holder, and Rivett, as well as in the small forestry settlement of Uriarra.

It was later found that the first casualty of the fires, an elderly woman named Dorothy McGrath, had died at the nearby Stromlo Forestry Settlement.

These outages affected both the Emergency Services Bureau's own headquarters in Curtin and the Canberra Hospital (running on back-up generators), which was under intense pressure from people suffering burns and smoke inhalation.

[14] It was later noted that the ESB could have moved its operations away from danger to other emergency service locations such as the AFP Winchester Centre or Tuggeranong Police Station.

Water, gas, and landline communications was unavailable to several suburbs due to damage to supply lines and city reservoirs.

However, the lack of resources and equipment failures for crews protecting the plant could have led to a catastrophe, as detailed in Danny Camilleri's testimony in Coroner Maria Doogan's subsequent inquest into the fires.

[15] He stated that if the fire had caused a breach in the chlorine tanks, it would have created "a poisonous cloud that would blow toward Canberra necessitating mass evacuations".

[clarification needed] While the very worst of the fires had passed, the situation was still far from stable, and going into Sunday, 19 January, houses were still ablaze across numerous suburbs.

By the evening of 19 January, it was clear that the worst-hit suburb was Duffy, where 200+ residences were destroyed,[19] and that four people had died: Alison Tener, 38, Peter Brooke, 74, and Douglas Fraser, 60, and Dorothy McGrath, 76, of the Mount Stromlo Forestry Settlement.

The inquiry found that: The Inquiry recommended there should be increased emphasis given to controlled burning as a fuel-reduction strategy, access to and training of emergency personnel in remote areas needed to be improved and a number of changes be made to the emergency services and the policies that govern their operations, including a greater emphasis on provision of information to the public.

The Coroner's Court of the Australian Capital Territory conducted an inquiry into the cause, origin, and circumstances of the 2003 bushfires and inquests into the four deaths associated with those fires.

The inquiry into the fires was on hold until August 2005, when the Full Bench of the Supreme Court delivered its decision,[26] declaring that Coroner Maria Doogan should not be disqualified on the ground of a reasonable apprehension of bias.

The memorial was designed by Canberra artists Tess Horwitz, Tony Steel and Martyn Jolly and incorporates elements requested by the ACT community.

Beyond the walls, a site framed by a grove of casuarinas contains red glass and metal forms, referring to the force of the firestorm and to the lightning strikes that sparked the main fires.