The New South Wales Rural Fire Service said it’s time now for the Far South Coast community to step up and be prepared for the threat of fires over the next six months.
Fire chiefs are concerned about the dry conditions across our region as the Bushfire Danger Period starts today.
District Manager Chris Anderson said local RFS Brigades are ready for what could be a very dangerous Spring and Summer.
“Although they’ve seen some exceptional rain west of the divide, the whole district hasn’t seen a great deal of rain. We just want people to be really careful, especially in and around the grassland country at the moment,” Superintendent Anderson said.
“We’ve more recently had some frost really cured a lot of the grasslands off and we just really, really want people to be careful when they’re undertaking pile burns,” he said.
“There’s not much moisture in the soil. So even if you think you’ve extinguished the fire it can, as soon as we get a little bit of wing push through.
“We’ve actually seen reignitions of fires that are burnt two, three, four weeks earlier and they’ve reignited and actually escaped into the grassland. It is exceptionally dry in that grassland at the moment so you need to notify the RFS and the easiest way to do that is just jump online onto the RFS website.
“There’s a form there that you have to fill out before undertaking any burning. That’s got to be done 24 hours in advance and also just let your neighbours know. That’s a key part of this and you actually have to let them know 24 hours in advance.
“Now is a great time to either do your Bushfire Survival Plan if you haven’t done one or sit down over dinner over a cup of tea with your family and just review what you’ve had in previous years.
“Now is the time to do it. You don’t want to start doing this when there is smoke in the air because people just don’t think what they normally would when when there’s already fire in the landscape. Now is a great time to do it. It doesn’t take long, but this can save you in the long term.”
