Fire crews are getting a head start on the 2023-24 bushfire season by completing hazard reduction burns throughout the North West region.
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The Tamworth District Rural Fire Service (RFS) completed one of the first hazard reduction burns on Friday, July 14, burning 30 hectares of Crown land located on Tribe Street.
Tamworth District RFS officer Phillip Brunsdon said this was one of the more high profile burns being located right next to suburban Tamworth.
"What we were doing was reducing the fuel loading to the surrounding houses within the area," he said.
"There are more burns planned around Kingswood, another one planned right next door to the Tribe Street site, and two at Chaffey Dam."
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The dryer winter season had provided fire crews with the perfect window of opportunity to complete these burns, Mr Brunsdon said.
"Usually at this time of year it is too wet to do the burns, so we are seeing quite a different winter season," he said.
"It's been a fair few years since we've seen a dryer winter such as this, so we are taking advantage of the opportunity to get ahead."
Fire crews across the state are on high alert for the upcoming fire season with El Nino set to produce dryer and hotter conditions.
The New England bushfire season was announced early this year, with the NSW RFS confirming the start of the bushfire danger period in Glen Innes, Inverell, and Tenterfield.
Mr Brunsdon said local crews were expecting the possibility of larger fires in the grass lands this spring/summer due to the amount of fuel loading across the region.
Tamworth District RFS was taking every precaution to prevent a repeat of the devastating 2020 bushfire season.
"There were a lot of lessons learned during the 2019-20 fire season and we've had few years to implement changes and new procedures to reduce the risk," Mr Brunsdon said.
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