Chief praises burns

Jessica Benton
THE REGION’S fire chief has praised Department of Sustainability and Environment for boosting its program of fuel-reduction burns across the region.
The department’s burning program covered 155,000 hectares of the state, including Otway Fire District, which covers Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast.
Country Fire Authority Region 7 operations manager Bob Barry said the region experienced a “significant increase” in reduction burns last year.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of work done with strategic fire breaks and asset protection zones, especially in the Otways area,” Mr Barry said.
Mr Barry’s praise for the increase in control programs around the Geelong region followed criticisms of fire pevention in other areas of the state in the wake of Victoria’s bushfires disaster.
Mr Barry said drought had put limits on opportunities for burns.
“We, as a fire authority, fully understand the limits of burning and we can’t forget the key element of this in the drought conditions,” he said.
“Also we can only burn in certain conditions and there’s only two opportunities to do this – in autumn and in spring. The fire danger period is from October to mid May, so when you put that into perspective they’ve achieved a lot.”
DSE’s Rob Price said the department, local government and CFA conducted burns on public and private land at “every available opportunity”.
Mr Price said authorities had only about 10 to 12 days a year to conduct burns in some parts of the state.