Canobolas Zone fire mitigation officer Geoff Selwood said in April a containment line was created near a forested area, and the recent burn off was initiated to reduce the risk further.

“The fuel load in some areas was 20-30 tonnes per hectare and in two weeks that will be very dry,” he said.

The forecast of a significant and long El Nino weather event concerns the fire authorities and brought forward the decision to burn off.

“There is a lot of native scrub along the road and if we were to leave it until April, we would then need to bring in a lot of heavy machinery,” he said.

The area burnt out was in a very steep and hilly location and if lightning had struck during the peak fire period, it was feared the result would have been devastating.

“If there had been a north westerly wind, the fire would have burnt through a lot of forests and sheep paddocks before getting to Fremantle Road, the nearest road,” Mr Selwood said.

The amount of smoke generated was caused not by the size of the fire, which was only small, but by the amount of moisture in the fuel.

“It was a low intensity burn and we used a helicopter to seed it with small incendiaries,” Mr Selwood said. 

“It was so moist that if there hadn’t been that wind, they would have all gone out.”