Farmers at odds over how to control bushfires

She said too often she heard fire fighters say “she’ll be right” of “let it burn itself out”. “Some landholders think they should be just left alone. But I want to see them act and get them put out before we have another disaster like Sir Ivan,” she said. “This idea of letting them burn out is the wrong one.”

A motion to at NSW Farmers conference that the priority for the RFS must be “early action to extinguish bush fires must be the priority” was sent back to a Farmers’ committee for better wording.

But fellow NSW Farmers member and volunteer firefighter Mitchell Clapham said immediately extinguishing fires was not always the most helpful way to solve a fire situation – or even possible.

He said August was a good time for farmers to  burn rubbish on their farms. “Now is the time to do it,” he said.

But he said when trying to control bushfires, it was better to burn containment lines around a fire and let it burn itself out. “That’s more sensible than trying to extinguish the bloody thing,” Mr Clapham said.

Landholders were reminded this week to notify neighbours and fire controllers when conducting burn-offs on their farm. A number of warning letters have been issued against landholders who hadn’t done so in the New England area.

Last week there were 142 fires lit on properties that escaped and needed controlling, the RFS said. There were more than double the number of fires from last year in NSW last week. Bushfire Danger Periods will start in 10 local government areas in northern NSW from August 1.