Total fire ban in place for Greater Sydney and Illawarra Shoalhaven

A total fire ban is in place for parts of the south coast of New South Wales and Greater Sydney regions.

Transcript

00:00OK, well, we've got winds and we've got warm temperatures and we've got dry, dryness.

00:08So putting that all together, it is not a good day for bushfires.

00:11And that's why the New South Wales Rural Fire Service has issued a total fire ban for the

00:16Greater Sydney and Illawarra Shoalhaven regions.

00:19Now, the wind has been relatively all right in Sydney, at least this morning.

00:24In other parts of the state, I think it's caused a little bit of chaos for power outages

00:30and that sort of thing.

00:32But for the most part, the wind is expected to now pick up in the next hour or so.

00:37There's a severe weather warning for damaging winds.

00:40For a large chunk of New South Wales, actually, from about Sydney all the way down south to

00:44the Victorian border, as far inland as the Snowy Mountains and the Central Tablelands

00:49and the Hunter, we could see wind travel as fast as 60 to 70 kilometres per hour from

00:55mid-morning through until the afternoon.

00:58We could see gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour, even 110 kilometres per hour is

01:05possible at higher elevations.

01:07So it's certainly a windy day ahead and things are going to be ramping up within the next

01:12hour or so.

01:13There's about 36 fires that the New South Wales RFS is keeping an eye on in New South Wales.

01:19Five of which are yet to be contained, but there's no threats.

01:23Staff here at the New South Wales RFS headquarters in Sydney more have been coming in, starting

01:28their shifts, keeping an eye on things.

01:30Touch wood it stays relatively calm, but they are keeping an eye on the situation.

01:35In fact, we caught up with the inspector of the RFS, Ben Shepard, to hear more about what's

01:40in store for the day ahead and just general advice for landholders in the area in relation

01:44to those two total fire bans.

01:46Here's what he had to say.

01:48Most importantly today, please do not use fire out in the open.

01:51What we don't want to see is any escape of any fires.

01:54Equally as well, if you have done burns in the last few days, go and check on them, make

01:59sure they're completely out.

02:00Under today's conditions, those areas that do require permits, they are suspended.

02:05Please do not try and light up in these conditions because that will be incredibly dangerous.

02:09So we just need people to check, jump on the RFS website, all the conditions and where

02:14the permits are required are on there.

02:16But keep yourself informed as well across the day.

02:20So spring is certainly here.

02:23We saw those warmer temperatures, especially across New South Wales last week.

02:27It's officially spring, two days into spring, and here we are with these total fire bans,

02:32who could believe it, for the Greater Sydney and Illawarra Shoal Haven regions.

02:37And a lot of people along the New South Wales East Coast, they're familiar with winds, especially

02:40in spring, right?

02:42It's just this combination of hotter, drier weather with the winds that the RFS is taking

02:47those extra precautions to minimise bushfire risk.