2006 Fire Season is coming early

Already, things are looking grim for the 2006-7 fire season.

AT the start of September, the forest areas were tinder dry and declared by the CFA to be at 'high fire danger' level. We even had a grass fire attended by the Whitfield CFA last Saturday (2nd Sep) near Power's Lookout.

The prescribed burning south of Cheshunt, planned by the DSE last year, has had to be suspended due to the moisture content of the forest floor being down around 11% - way below the required minimum of 17% for a safe burn.

Unless we get substantial rains, the fire season will be brought forward to November - when all burnoffs will be forbidden.

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Warning on water, fires crisis

07.Sep.06: VICTORIANS should prepare for even tougher water restrictions and an extreme bushfire season this summer after the failure of the state's winter rainfall, Australia's most senior weather forecaster has warned. ... more

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