Sunshine Coast fireys slam backyard fires during ban

An exhausted fire chief has labelled Sunshine Coast residents who lit fires in their backyards just days after a home was destroyed and hundreds of residents evacuated as “irresponsible” and “negligent”.

FIREFIGHTERS on the Sunshine Coast, exhausted from days of battling a major blaze in Peregian, are exasperated as local residents light backyard fires in defiance of fire bans.

A QFES spokesman said there were eight cases of people lighting fires outdoors between 5pm yesterday and 6am today, decisions the local fire chief has labelled “irresponsible” and “negligent”.

In the worst instance, at 7pm yesterday, crews were called to a private residence in Peachester at 7pm after a man lit three stacks of wood.

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This is despite dry conditions having fuelled a small fire into an ember storm in Peregian just this week, destroying one home and forcing hundreds from their homes for two days.

The Caloundra Rural Fire Service area director Andrew Allen said those who lit fires on their private property were negligent to the risks and inconsiderate to volunteer firefighters.

“It’s just irresponsible,” Mr Allen said.

“Maybe they’re not understanding the severity that, if the fire gets away, what will be the impact that has on the community.”

After days of battling a large fire at Peregian, exhausted local volunteers are being called to small fires being lit on private properties by residents unaware of a fire ban. Picture: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

He said locals needed to be aware that dry and windy conditions, forecast for tomorrow, would increase the risk of fires becoming out of control.

“I don’t think they do understand,” Mr Allen said.

“It only takes a couple of sparks and away they go, it can move that quickly. They’ll be out of control before they have a chance to get them under control.”

With a local fire ban in place for large swathes of Queensland, Mr Allen said it was mandatory for two Rural Fire Service brigades to be sent to any report of a fire, including those started in backyards.

“The people who are responding to that are our rural volunteers,” he said.

“They are giving up their time to go and look after someone’s property, to extinguish something because someone has been negligent.”

“Our volunteers, they all have jobs as well.”

“It’s a bit unfair on the volunteers when people start being negligent.”

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After a day of respite today, forecasters are warning that fire weather conditions will worsen tomorrow with hotter temperatures and stronger winds predicted.

BOM meteorologist Livio Regano said forecasts provided little hope of any significant rainfall in Queensland except for the far north.

“It’s basically as dry as a chip,” Mr Livio said.

“Because we won’t get any rain, when the winds get up there’s an increased fire danger.”

“Tomorrow and Saturday, the fire danger will be up to very high again because of the winds.”

Rural fire volunteers are being called to small fires lit on private properties, only days after fighting horrifying firestorms on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily

BOM is forecasting tops of 25C in Stanthorpe, 28C in Noosa (near Peregian), and 29C in Nerang tomorrow, with winds above 25km/h.

When asked what rainfall Queensland could expect in the next week, Mr Livio responded “none sorry, nowhere, except far north Queensland.”

He said fire dangers were moderate early next week, before becoming more dangerous later.

“Late next week, it gets quite hot. Any time it gets hot, there will be higher fire danger.”