Early bushfires spark warning

The fuel in those areas are ready to burn now ... the conditions [today] will suit fires burning freely — ANDREW MCGUINESS

TWO bushfires are burning at an advice warning level as the south-east of the state heads into its warmest day of the season so far.

A fire at Proctors Rd, north of Kingston, is entering its fourth day, with about 25 firefighters backburning at the site yesterday to bring it within containment lines.

Incident controller Michael Netherton said a legal fire on a private property came together with another fire on Sunday to create one large bushfire.

The area was not earmarked for controlled burning, Mr Netherton said. There is also a bushfire at Argonaut Rd, St Helens.

Tasmania Fire Service and Parks and Wildlife crews were responding, but there was no immediate threat as of yesterday afternoon.

In Hobart today, the mercury is tipped to top 29C, with light north-westerly winds predicted for much of the day.

TFS district officer Andrew McGuinness said dry conditions from Orford to Bicheno, the upper Derwent Valley and the Coal River Valley were particularly concerning to firefighters.

“The fuels in those areas are ready to burn now,” Mr McGuiness said.

“The conditions [today] will suit fires burning freely.

“We’re not going to get a lot of wind, but enough to be concerning and it will turn into a sea breeze later in the afternoon that will switch the direction of any fires that are travelling, so people need to be mindful of that.”

While there is no fire ban today, the TFS asked any landowner who had lit a fire within the past 72 hours to check it was fully extinguished and to hold off on lighting new fires until tomorrow.

Leaving a fire unattended could leave landowners open to criminal and civil prosecution if the fire escaped and destroyed other people’s property, Mr McGuinness said.

He said it was not unusual to have bushfires burning in the state in mid-October, but resources were already stretched.

“To have fires burning and to have so many resources allocated to fires this early in the year indicates to us that come December/January, fires are going to be increasingly resource hungry, so that’s going to put a lot of strain on volunteers,” Mr McGuinness said.

He said more volunteer firefighters were needed in the lakes area in the Midlands, the East Coast and the Tasman Peninsula.