Three fires in one afternoon

Two of the fires yesterday, one at Burnt Bridge and another near the car park of Kempsey Heights Bowling Club were responded to by Fire and Rescue, while a third blaze at Lyall Ln was brought under control by Kempsey NSW Rural Fire Service.

The fires were brought under control within an hour.

Kempsey Fire and Rescue has received 41 calls alone this month and station commander Tony Hackenberg said this is a considerably high number of calls.

“It’s only the 14^th and we’ve already had 41 calls, last month we had 58 over the whole month,” he said.

“The two fires we responded to yesterday were both nuisance fires and the local police are investigating due to the risk these fires can pose because of the dry conditions.”

“The police have been attending nearly all of our calls recently, to get this under control before the fire conditions worsen.”

On Sunday, Fire and Rescue received 12 calls, a record number for August.

“We usually see this number of calls in October, but this year the fire season is beginning earlier,” Mr Hackenberg said.

Mr Hackenberg urges all residents to prepare their bush fire action plan, remove dry leaves from gutters, clean up any bush land on properties and be vigilant.

“We also urge people to call 000 if there is a fire instead of calling the business number as it is not always manned and the quicker we can respond the less devastation we will have,” he said. 

Fire permits will also be required beginning this Friday August 17 and thereafter. 

“We have brought fire restrictions and the requirement of permits forward this year due to the dry conditions,” Mr Hackenberg said.