IN the past few weeks, the Pine Rivers Shire Council has brought in a contractor who has been chipping the periodic piles of combustible materials that were left along the recently forged fire trails.
With some 3km of fire trails criss-crossing the Dawn Road Reserve, this clean-up took a while and the work certainly was dusty but the resultant reduction in potential kindling piled up near trees should help keep any flames lower to the ground.
For those unfamiliar with fires in bushland, experts say that keeping flames out of the canopy helps prevent ground fires becoming much fiercer firestorms that can spit fireballs randomly from the leading edge of the fire front, sometimes up to hundreds of metres from the main fire.
This happened spectacularly in Canberra a few years ago, leading to the deaths of four residents and the loss of more than 500 homes across several suburbs.
Trina McL
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