TOTAL FIRE BANS AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT

The agricultural sector can be heavily impacted by natural events and disasters. People’s whole lives can become eroded from a simple act of mother nature. Impacts such as contamination of water bodies, loss of harvest or livestock, increased susceptibility to disease and destruction of irrigation systems and other agricultural infrastructure can all have long lasting effects on agricultural production. These include crops, forest growth, and arable lands which require time to mature. However, sometimes these ‘events’ may not always be an act of nature, for example bushfires.

Bushfires can be deliberately lit by someone ignoring the rules set out by the NSW RFS or by someone who simply tosses a cigarette butt onto the ground on an extremely dry, hot and windy day, without thinking about the consequences of what it could actually cause. Throwing lit cigarettes butts from cars when you’re driving is dangerous, because cigarettes can start bushfires and grass fires and place lives at risk. It’s the same with bush fire arson, it can destroy lives, properties and have long term effects on the environment and can also become quite costly for the community with losses of properties, cost of firefighting resources and disruption to businesses.

I have a lot of family and many friends who live in the country and they take the action of a Total Fire Ban (TOBAN) extremely serious. The local RFS volunteers will usually declare a Total Fire Ban when they believe that bushfires are more likely to spread and cause damage on days when the weather is very hot, dry and windy. I think it is extremely important that we take into consideration that when we light a fire, we seriously consider what consequences it could have. A harmless bonfire when out camping with friends could lead to serious damage, even though it may have not been your intention in the first place.

I have seen first hand what fires can do to families and their properties. A very close family friend of mine was evacuated with her family and they came back to nothing but a burnt down house. Another very close person to me, whose whole family are RFS volunteers almost lost their property in a recent bushfire - but they were one of the lucky ones. They made sure their property was okay and took the preventative measures, and then set off to help their neighbours fight this horrific event. To a degree it does not matter if someone loses their property or if they don’t, what matters is taking the preventative measures provided to us by the NSW RFS and actually listening to them to prevent such an event from happening.

Simply thinking before lighting could save a massive disaster from happening. I think that when people ignore a total fire ban they create danger to the public and the wilderness, so I believe it is crucial to abide by these rules and if you are ever unsure of what they are then you should check out the NSW RFS website for more details. Here you can find a bunch of information about fire danger ratings and periods, total fire bans, fire permits and more.

Learning when you can and can not light a fire and how to do it safely can decrease a long-term effect on agriculture and the environment. Even though there are natural events and disasters that are unforeseen and sometimes there is not anything we can do about them, it does not mean that gives us the right to act in non-compliance of state and federal environmental laws. I know I would not want to be the reason why hundreds of thousands of livestock and native fauna become killed and injured, or the reason why an innocent family loses everything, There are plenty of resources and assistance in planning and preventing of fires. We just need to take the time to look and not be careless.