FIREFIGHTERS were kept busy battling no less than six fires that broke out in the Orana region in the space of an hour late Tuesday afternoon.
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Orana Rural Fire Service (RFS) team leader Superintendent Lyndon Wieland said from 5pm, about 40 volunteers responded to fires at Gin Gin (Trangie), Wongarbon, Wellington, Mumbil and Benalong.
Superintendent Wieland said in some cases people had not heeded fire safety warnings, including at least once incident where a fire was lit on a day where a total fire ban had been declared.
Strong winds presented an additional challenge for Orana's firefighters on Tuesday, according to Superintendent Wieland.
"As that front come through, and we recorded wind gusts of up to 70 to 80km/h here, powerlines crashed into each other and that sparked fires," he said.
"Some fires came from old stumps that were still smouldering from fires three weeks ago, and the intensity of that wind was such that it picked the embers up and threw them hundreds of yards outside containment lines."
Despite Tuesday's, total fire ban, the source of a fire in Wongarbon appeared to have been someone lighting a fire in their backyard, Superintendent Wieland said, while an investigation was under way into the cause of the "very concerning" fire on Mudgee Road, Wellington.
"The Mumbil fire we believed was started by powerlines and in Benalong by a lightning strike," he said.
Superintendent Wieland said Tuesday's string of fires was a sign of things to come if people did not listen to warnings and think carefully about what they were doing.
"Every day I'm getting phonecalls about people slashing and welding, and it's especially dangerous around a lot of the long, dry vegetation that's around at the moment," he said.
"If that continues, we could end up with a situation like the South Australian bushfires."
