A busier than usual remainder of Autumn and Winter along the Far South Coast for our firefighters.
The area covered by hazard reduction burns is set to rapidly increase in response to a backlog of fuel removal and increased threat to the community built up over the past five years.
A new multi-agency government taskforce has been created by the State Government to get the job done.
Taskforce Fire Guard Leader Superintendent Matt Reeves said the burns currently underway on the Far South Coast will continue to generate a lot of smoke over the next several days.
“The Far South Coast like other districts has really worked hard to capitalise on the opportunity,” he said.
“They’ve conducted a whole lot of burns and we’ll continue to see more hazard reduction burns in the area.”
They’ll focus will be on high-risk areas along the Far South Coast.
He said Eden, Black Range and west of Tuross Head are just some locations on the list.
The Rural Fire Service admits a backlog of fuel reduction has led the the creation of the new taskforce to attack the problem ahead of the next bushfire season.
“We’ve certainly seen in the last four or five years really narrow windows of opportunity for hazard reduction burning primarily because of the wet weather we’ve experienced,” Superintendent Reeves said.
“So if the ground is too wet we get ineffective burning and it doesn’t gives us the outcomes to protect the community that we’re looking for,” he said.
