Before You Light Up

LAST season there were house fires in the local area which may have been prevented by proper chimney and fire place maintenance.

Last year: Fire and Rescue examine a house in Scone which narrowly missed a major fire developing.

Adam Dewberry, superintendent of Fire and Rescue New South Wales said before people begin using their fireplace they should prepare properly.

“Make sure the chimney is cleaned at the start of each season,” said Superintendent Dewberry.

“The timber needs to be well dried to avoid excessive smoke and to prevent sap getting in the chimney,” he said.

“Always use appropriate means to light the fire of newspaper and small chips and never use an accelerant either for an indoor fireplace, or an outdoor fire,” he said.

“An open fire place should always have a screen in front of it and a good distance between clothing of at least one metre and never left unattended,” Superintendent Adam Dewberry said.

David Coe, captain of the Kingdon Ponds Rural Bush Fire Service said autumn was their busiest time of year last year and asked people to make sure they notify the hotline if they are lighting an outdoor fire to avoid the brigade being called out unnecessarily.

“We are out of permit season but it is important that people abide by the law and before lighting an outdoor fire notify their neighbours and call the hotline on 1300 611 400,” said Captain Coe.

“Don’t send us out to a fire for nothing, many, many times we’ve been called out to people burning off and someone has rung 000 to report the fire and when we see that nobody has notified the authorities of a planned fire we need to respond immediately,” he said.

“Taking the time to call the hotline can save everyone a lot of time,” he said.

“We also see a lot of outdoor fires, where people are burning off get out of control at this time of year, because the weather is still warm and the winds can pick up at the wrong time,” he said.

“On Friday we had to respond to an incident where tyres and plastics were burning just north of Scone and it is a hard fire to extinguish and dangerous work for us, so people need to know what they are allowed to burn and how they are supposed to dispose of different things,” Captain David Coe said.