Soaked start to bushfire season

The area might be quite soggy after some heavy downpours of rain but the NSW Rural Fire Service made the decision not to adjust the danger period in the interest of consistency and to avoid confusion.

Orana RFS team leader Lyndon Wieland said people would still be able to burn off, but they would just have to apply for a fire permit before doing it.

“It seems strange to be entering a fire danger period when there is so much rain around but the Orana region is a big one with different weather conditions from one end to the other,” he said.

“It will only be a few weeks and and the crops will start to cure and come to a head so there will be danger and we want to keep everything under control.”

Superintendent Wieland said he met with the chairman of the Orana Bush Fire Management Committee, who agreed with the decision to maintain the standard Bush Fire Danger Period, which runs from October 1 to March 31.

“I travelled out to Cobar earlier this week and as soon as you get west of Trangie, you can see the barley grass is turning and it won’t be long before a bushfire could get away in that,” he said.

“Getting a permit is free and straightforward, and brigades are only too happy to help issue them.”

Superintendent Wieland said while the start to the bush fire season was going to be low-key, there was no room for complacency.

He said if the rain ended soon, it would only take a week of hot weather to brown the grass and make for a potentially dangerous end to the danger period.

Superintendent Wieland encouraged everyone to begin their pre-summer clean-up, keeping grass short around houses and removing any potential fuel for a fire. Waiting until December wasn’t an option, he said, because slashing and other activities were also a fire hazard.