Fears for fires reignited
Published Date: 10 May 2013
Summary
Daily Liberal
WINTER is approaching but the Orana team of the NSW Rural Fire Service is telling property owners across the region dry landscapes have left the area "vulnerable" to runaway fire.
Team manager Superintendent Lyndon Wieland has spelt out the legal requirements for lighting a fire after revealing "a lot of people are being surprised at fire activity this time of year".
Landholders have lit fires in the likes of stacked timber only to find it move into long, dry grass.
In most cases they independently managed to get the blazes under control, but the potential for disaster was high given current conditions, the team manager said.
"We're going through a very, very dry period at the moment," Superintendent Wieland said.
"There hasn't been any significant rain for a long period of time. There's not much moisture out there. The possibility of fire spreading is very likely."
The Orana RFS team reports of a shed being destroyed recently by a night-time fire in the Wellington area.
"We believe it may have started from a little burn they had in the area the day before," Superintendent Wieland said.
He is cautioning against leaving fires alone, especially at night.
"If you light a fire and go to bed, you are leaving yourself wide open," he said.
Superintendent Wieland said landholders were legally required to notify the Orana Fire Control Office and neighbours 24 hours in advance of striking a match.
"But over and above that there are legal liabilities if you allow a fire to leave your property and it burns someone else's property," he said.
"If it causes damage... you leave yourself open to prosecution. If you allow a fire to leave your property you've broken the law."
The Orana RFS team is urging landholders to give the appropriate notice and at the same time seek advice.
"If they don't ring us we don't get the opportunity to tell them how vulnerable we are at the moment, particularly small landholders who don't understand fire activity," Superintendent Wieland said.
The team manager is not telling people not to burn.
"But until we get good rain they need to be very very careful and make sure they've got fire breaks and a firefighting unit with them," he said.
"They need to be on the scene when they are burning, all of the time."
The Orana RFS team has responded to about 350 calls since the start of October. In an average year it logs about 300 operational calls.
