Bush Fire Season Is Over But There Is No Time To Relax

As of the start of this month the Australian bush fire season is officially over, but Brad Stewart from the NSW Rural Fire Service says that there are still dangers present when it comes to fires in our community.

“In the last two days we’ve actually had three hay fires, fortunately they’ve all been small in nature, but it’s the direct result of the recent rain fall and some of those hay pile stacks being out in the open” said Mr. Stewart.

He urged local farmers and property owners to check their haystacks and make sure there is no excess heat to reduce the potential danger of these fires.

The 2019/20 bush fire season was the worst on record for NSW and Mr. Stewart says the local volunteers took on some huge hours to prevent it being even worse.

“We had volunteers travel as far away as Tenterfield and Glen Innes, Casino, Grafton, Nowra, Braidwood, Batemans Bay, Moruya, Bega, Albury and obviously Tumut was the standout for the year” he said.

With the grueling nature of the season there were 177 volunteers sent away from September of 2019 through to early January 2020 and between those people they competed 885 12-hour shifts (if you do the math that’s around 10,600 hours) supporting fire operations across the state, and that doesn’t include those who fought the Dunn’s Road fire.

“We had 2,200 volunteers and 1,704 shifts were completed by volunteers in support of the Dunn’s Road Fire. That is 25,000 volunteer hours that were completed up in the Westbrook rd area and further afield into Tumut and into the Tooma Valley” Mr. Stewart said.

Along with all those volunteers at the front of those fires, the NSW RFS were also continuing local operations battling bushfires around the local government area.

To everyone who played a part in fighting these fires, protecting properties and saving lives we cannot thank you enough!

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