A SENIOR South Australian firefighter has urged Riverlanders to take personal responsibility in being prepared for fire emergencies this summer.
The new South Australian fire danger season is set to begin in November and will run until April, 2021.
Riverland MFS regional commander Garrick Lehmann said windy conditions in summer could see bushfires travel from surrounding parklands into a Riverland town.
“In the township people may become a bit relaxed and think they aren’t going to be affected by bushfire,” Mr Lehmann said.
“But fires can be caused around the creeks, reserves or the Paringa Paddock area, which would then entail burning leaves and embers that would then float and land around the township.
“With the fire there will be localised winds and those flying embers can impact the township.”
Mr Lehmann said locals needed to begin removing and minimising fire risks – such as tall grass outside – around their homes.
“Some people need to start doing a bit of work in their own preparation, because if an ember falls there’s a higher risk of a fire starting within their properties,” he said.
“Although it won’t be the direct flame impingement from the bushfires or surrounding fire, locally it becomes an emergency for them and their neighbours.
“Although you live in the township, you still have that duty of care and responsibility.”
Mr Lehmann said needing to attend residential fires could divert firefighting resources away from other emergency situations.
“In the environment we live in, especially with the amount of fire we had last year, people need to take ownership and build resilience,” he said.
“Our governments and local councils can’t be there every minute to help with every need, so people have to have resilience in themselves.
“Government can’t react quickly at all times with recovery, even with the best intentions (and) when we start having a few incidents around the state it does put a drain on the emergency response.
“Some type of help will get there, but it may not get there straight away under extreme or catastrophic conditions.”
Mr Lehmann said knowing a safe route out of a burning home, plus backing-up personal photos and documents, were crucial aspects of a fire danger plan.
“It only takes a few moments to understand how to unlock the doors, or if it’s a fire ban day not having towels or doormats against buildings,” he said.
“Know how to get out of your place safely and don’t have things blocking the exit ways.
“If you have a lot of photos, save them to a second device or a hard drive and put that in a safe place.
“It doesn’t become an emergency to a lot of people until it’s happening to them, and when they do lose things some of those are irreplaceable.”
Mr Lehmann advised Riverlanders phone notifications would be provided in the event of a local fire emergency.
“If there’s an emergency in Renmark we can escalate messages that go out to the public through media outlets,” he said.
“But we can also draw what’s called a polygon… we go onto a map and we draw around that (area) where we think the wind is going.
“It then sends out an automatic SMS message to the people that live around that house.
“We want people to read the messages and understand them, or if they don’t try to talk to someone before a fire or emergency event.”