Severe Fire Danger and Fire Bans - Lockyer Valley Region - 2 December 2018

Severe Fire Danger - Lockyer Valley Region

from: http://www.ewn.com.au/alerts/qld-fire-weather-warning-2018-12-01-395785.weather
Issued at 4:12 pm EST on Saturday 1 December 2018.

Weather Situation
Westerly winds will strengthen on Sunday across southern Queensland ahead of another surface trough in the southwest. Combined with ongoing hot and dry conditions, Severe fire dangers are forecast across southern and southeastern districts on Sunday. With some instability also ahead of the trough, isolated high-based thunderstorms are possible along the coastal fringe south of Mackay and through inland southern Queensland. These thunderstorms may be gusty, but will have little to no rainfall.

For Sunday 2 December:

Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following forecast districts:
Central Highlands and Coalfields, Maranoa and Warrego, Darling Downs and Granite Belt, Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast

The Rural Fire Service Queensland advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.

For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au.

Fire Danger Rating Maps
see http://alerts3.ewn.com.au/images/201812/01161833_qldfww_ewn.png

Fire Bans - Lockyer Valley Region

See:  https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/Bushfire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/Pages/Lockyer-Valley-Regional-Council.aspx

A Fire Ban applies from 0001hrs Sunday 2 December 2018 to midnight Sunday 2 December 2018 in the following local government areas:  Gold Coast, Ipswich, Somerset, Lockyer, Logan and Scenic Rim.

All Permits to Light Fire previously issued in the fire ban area are hereby cancelled.

For more information please see the Fire Ban Declaration.​ https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/BushFire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/List%20Documents/11218FireBan-SouthEast.pdf

Fire Bans: There IS a Fire Ban for this Shire
Start Date: 2/12/2018 12:00 AM
End Date: 2/12/2018 11:55 PM
Attachment: Fire Ban Declaration

Fire Restrictions

Please review your local council website for any policies or local restrictions.  For any additional information please contact your local Fire Warden or Rural Fire Service Area Office.


For Smokespotters only: Please make sure you know where your bearing compass is and report all sightings of smoke to a Coordinator (see numbers below)


when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours
__________________________________
Helidon Hills Smoke Spotter Coordinators:
Gordon Claridge 5462 1028 / 0401 346 036
Mike Ford 4600 9960 / 0418 732 504
KP Neilson 4697 8053 / 040 555 9812

email: smokespotters@gmail.com (not for reporting smoke)

http://www.smokespotters.blogspot.com.au/

How to prepare your property for the fire season

Just came across this page on the Victorian Country Fire Authority website on preparing your property for the fire season.

 Each of the "!"s in the graphic link to a hint on site preparation.

It has a very good combination of graphic and text to get the main points across and some quite specific guidelines, as well as links to much more detailed material on a range of relevant topics.

See here: https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/how-to-prepare-your-property

Fire Ban - Wednesday 19 Septemer to Friday 21 September

A fire ban is current from Wednesday 0001hrs 19 September until 2359 Friday 21 September 2018

in the local government areas of Gold Coast, Ipswich, Somerset, Lockyer, Logan and Scenic Rim.  

Start Date: 19/09/2018 12:05 AM

End Date: 21/09/2018 11:55 PM

Link:  To see the terms of the Fire Ban:  https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/BushFire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/List Documents/20180919_FireBan_SER.pdf






when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours
__________________________________
Helidon Hills Smoke Spotter Coordinators:
Gordon Claridge 5462 1028 / 0401 346 036
Mike Ford 4600 9960 / 0418 732 504
KP Neilson 4697 8053 / 040 555 9812

email: smokespotters@gmail.com (not for reporting smoke)

http://www.smokespotters.blogspot.com.au/

Saturday 1 September - Very High Fire Danger in the Lockyer

The forecast Fire Danger Rating for the area including the Lockyer Valley Region was changed to Very High for today, 1 September. [ http://www.bom.gov.au/qld/forecasts/fire-danger-ratings.shtml ]

Not surprising considering the high winds through the area, relatively low humidity and very dry conditions.

Forecast for tomorrow is High, followed by current forecast of Low-Moderate for Monday and Tuesday - but keep in mind the very dry conditions in the Lockyer which are unlikely to have changed.

Smokespotters website links updated

I've just been through the tab pages at the top of this website and tested and updated the links.  Quite a few of them were out of date.

Please, if you find a link that is broken, or information that is incorrect, email me at gfclaridge [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk with the details of exactly what is wrong.

While I was doing this I had a look at the page-views statistics for this website.

The Helidon Hills Smokespotters website went 'live' in August 2012.  In the six years since then there have been 14,643 page-views, with 365 page-views last month.

By the way, the Smokespotters group is 10 years old this month.

Fire Danger in all of SEQ is Very High - local Fire Bans in place in 6 LGAs to midnight 20 August

From: https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/BushFire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/List%20Documents/UpdatedFireBan15-20Aug18.pdf

A prohibition on lighting fires in the open applies for the period 0001hrs Thursday 16th August 2018 to 2359 hrs on Monday 20th August 2018 in the fire ban area(s) specified hereunder:

Within the whole of the Local Government Areas of:
Ipswich
Somerset
Lockyer
Logan
Scenic Rim
Gold Coast

All Permits to Light Fire previously issued in the local fire ban area are hereby cancelled, subject to the following exemptions.

Local Fire Ban and Cancellation of Permits to Burn - Lockyer Valley Regional Council area and other SEQ Council areas

There is Local Fire Fire Ban in place from Sunday 12 August 2018 to Monday 13 August 2018 in the Local Government Areas of Ipswich, Somerset, Lockyer, Logan, Scenic Rim and Gold Coast.

See: https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/Bushfire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/Pages/Lockyer-Valley-Regional-Council.aspx

In addition, all fire permits previously issued in the local fire ban area have been cancelled. 

See: https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/BushFire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Places/lgas/List Documents/Local fire Ban 12 to 13 August 2018.pdf

Note, the literal meaning of this is that the permits no longer exist - not that they automatically come back into effect after the end of the Local Fire Ban period.

There is more detail on this on the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services NEWSROOM website: https://newsroom.psba.qld.gov.au/Content/Default/Releases/Article/Permits-cancelled-as-south-east-Queensland-bushfire-threat-climbs/-3/27/14049

Mr Gillespie urged people to report any sign of fire to Triple Zero (000) immediately**.
 
“No matter how small, please report it so we can get on top of it as quickly as possible to protect life and property.”
 
For more information or to find your local fire warden, visit www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au

** For fires in the Helidon Hills Smokespotter area please also advise one of the Smokespotter Coordinators (see contact details below) so that we can immediately begin to get cross bearings on smoke from fires distant from houses and/or roads to help in accurately locating fires.

regards

Gordon


From the Declaration of Local Fire Ban giving effect to the above restrictions:

A prohibition on lighting fires in the open applies for the period 0001hrs Sunday 12th August 2018 to 2359 hrs on Monday 13th August 2018 in the fire ban area(s) specified hereunder:

Within the whole of the Local Government Areas of:

Ipswich Somerset Lockyer Logan Scenic Rim Gold Coast

All Permits to Light Fire previously issued in the local fire ban area are hereby cancelled, subject to the following exemptions.

THE FOLLOWING EXEMPTIONS APPLY:

Fires lit for the purpose of burning standing sugar cane for harvest in accordance with the established practice of the industry. The burning of standing cane is permitted between 1800 hrs and 0500 hrs the following day once a permit to burn has been obtained from the local fire warden for those blocks of cane that require a permit to burn.

Fires lit for the purpose of burning tops and trash between the hours of 1800hrs

and 0900hrs (6.00pm and 9.00am) once a permit to burn has been obtained from the local fire warden for those blocks of cane that require a permit to burn.

Fires lit in accordance with the provisions of Section 86A of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990, Part 6 Sections 53 Powers of authorised officer in dangerous situations and 55 Powers of authorised fire officer for preventative or Investigative purposes.

when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours
__________________________________
Helidon Hills Smoke Spotter Coordinators:
Gordon Claridge 5462 1028 / 0401 346 036
Mike Ford 4600 9960 / 0418 732 504
KP Neilson 4697 8053 / 040 555 9812