FIRE danger season is officially over, but a local Country Fire Service (CFS) captain is urging residents to be vigilant – and have their flues checked before lighting fireplaces.
With the cooling weather, residents are beginning to light their fireplaces, but Waikerie CFS captain Shaun Arnold urged people to have their flues professionally checked for any blocks first.
“If the flue is blocked, it’s going to cause a fire inside your home,” he said.
“You can’t tell if the flue is clear when you first light the fire – everyone should be having their chimney flues cleared now. Otherwise, before you know it, your house is full of smoke.”
Mr Arnold said while people calling emergency services to report burn-offs is inevitable, locals can ensure their rubbish burns remain under control.
“(CFS personnel) know we’re going to get called out to burn-offs because of people driving past, seeing flames or smoke, and thinking there’s an out-of-control fire,” he said.
“It’s unavoidable.
“But locals performing burn-offs can at least make sure their fires don’t get out of control by following the same procedures they would follow when burning under a permit.
“Just because the weather is getting cooler doesn’t mean we’re going to have downpours every day like we did last week.
“Rubbish piles and the land around them will become dry very fast, and all it takes to start a grass fire is a single ember travelling over to a neighbour’s yard and landing in their grass.”
Mr Arnold said people performing burn-offs need to stay near the fires.
“Leaving a burn-off to smoulder means anyone driving past is going to see a fire just burning by itself, and they’re going to call it in,” he said.
“Depending on how big the pile you’re burning is, you’ll need several people to hang around and keep an eye on it, to make sure nothing at all gets out of hand.
“An ember can smoulder for days before catching.
“Burning off your rubbish is all well and good, but one of the worst things is for it to start up again later.
“Fire danger season might be over but that doesn’t mean we can be complacent.”