Canobolas Zone Superintendent David Hoadley was shocked that someone would deliberately light a fire in Orange on Tuesday night.
A GRASS fire, deliberately lit at Lone Pine Avenue on a day tipped to reach the extreme fire danger rating, has shocked and concerned Canobolas Rural Fire Service (RFS) zone manager Superintendent David Hoadley.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that people would do that sort thing,” he said.
“Thankfully the police caught them and they’ve been charged.”
“I’d hope that people aren’t unaware of what happened in Victoria and Tasmania this week.”
The Canobolas RFS were not called to any new fires as of yesterday afternoon, but Mr Hoadley said firefighters were aware things could change.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on our three existing fires at Long Point and Baldry and we were also doing some patrols at the North Logan Road fire at Cowra,” he said.
“We had flare-ups at Long Point.”
Mr Hoadley said crews checked up on two lightning strikes in the zone early on Wednesday morning but fortunately they did not cause any fires.
“Thankfully the community have helped us,” he said.
“We’ve scaled back a little bit but we’re still very conscious of it heating up later in the week on Saturday and Monday.”
Two helicopters from the Canobolas zone were sent to fight fires at Bogan Gate and Mr Hoadley said aerial resources were being shared around as needed.
RFS volunteers are no longer based at the brigades but remain on call should any fires arise.
clare.colley@fairfaxmedia.com.au