By JONATHON HOWARD
SOUTHERN Downs’ firefighters are concerned that an increasing number of landholders are not honouring their obligations to prepare for the future bushfire season.
The risk of a life-threatening bushfire sweeping across the Southern Downs has spiked this year courtesy of increased moisture levels which in summer time will translate to enormous fuel loads.
The Queensland Fire and Rescue Service has now put a call out to all landholders to remove flammable material from their properties and secure their land from fire risk by creating fire breaks.
The issue was noticed as volunteer firefighters from Stanthorpe carried out a controlled burn at Leslie Park on Saturday, from 3pm to 5pm.
The burn-off revealed evidence of landholders’ unpreparedness.
Stanthorpe Urban Fire and Rescue auxiliary firefighter, Nathan Parkes, said landholders could be held accountable if a fire was to breakout on their property and spread, due to unaddressed fuel loads.
“People have to understand that most of the fire-fighting is done by volunteers,” Mr Sutton said.
“What’s meant to happen is there is meant to be some sort of partnership where landholders do their part to protect themselves from fires and the volunteers help out when it all goes wrong.
“This year, for some reason though there’s been very little uptake of opportunities to put in firebreaks and reduce fuel loads.”
Mr Parkes said residents could be forced to take ownership of a potentially catastrophic fire if they failed to implement firebreaks and the fire starts on their property.
Mr Parkes said landholder’s neglect had even extended as far as unkempt grass beside houses.
Mr Parkes urged landholders to install firebreaks immediately, warning that the risk associated with burn-offs would rapidly increase as cooler months draw to a close.
