NSW Rural Fire Service says more compliance needed in permit burns

Superintendent Patrick Westwood, district manager for the Southern Border team, said Monday's fire at a hay processing facility near Tocumwal served as a reminder to be vigilant.

"We are seeing a string of hay shed fires at the moment due to the increased amount of grass growth that we've had," he said.

"The green nature of the stalks and stems within the bales, there is a real potential for people to accidentally have ignitions occur by spontaneous combustion."

Mr Westwood said the facility landlord had been well prepared but unfortunately the blaze caused a lot of damage and was still being monitored.

"That fire will continue to burn for a significant amount of time, there was a lot of stored hay products within the shed," he said.

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Many permit burns were taking place at the moment, but the RFS had seen "fairly low compliance".

"There's been a lot of escapes and a lot of people not adhering to all their conditions," Mr Westwood said.

"It's happening right across the Riverina.

"Being able to light a fire for agricultural purposes is a very big responsibility on the landowner, the conditions are there to minimise threat of escape and threat of impact to both themselves and the neighbours.

"This year, with the amount of growth that's around, people just need to take extra caution and be prepared to change some of their tried and true tactics that they've used to light fires in the past."

One example is when creating fire breaks, push the dirt piles - which tended to include more grass this season - further into the break, not on the edge.

"Last week in the Culcairn area we had what we'd assume to be the accidental ignition of two power poles," the superintendent said.

The timber poles had to be replaced at the landowner's expense.

"It's not only an expensive exercise to do that, but it's also a very dangerous exercise, you run the risk of dropping power lines which can electrify fences and cause ... unseen risk to somebody who's working on that property," he said.

The RFS planned a hazard reduction burn on Wednesday at River Road, Jingellic, with future burns around Albury if the weather and conditions were suitable.

"We just ask that the community reflects on last year, Black Summer, and remembers that whilst we have a quiet year this year, there's a possibility that we could have a lot of increased risk next year due to the amount of grass that has accumulated during this wet summer and people plan their properties appropriately," Mr Westwood said.

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