The DEH fire crews burnt about 50 hectares of land in Mount Remarkable National Park and Telowie Gorge Conservation Park to reduce fuel loads within the areas.

DEH regional fire management officer Stuart Beinke said the burns were essential in reducing the impact of bushfires on public land.

“They are conducted for a number of reasons such as reducing heavy fuel loads in strategic areas of our

parks and reserves or for ecological and for research purposes,” he

said.

“Reducing heavy fuel loads is very important because it can make it easier to control a bushfire, help prevent a bushfire spreading to residential areas and ultimately save people’s lives and property.”

Mr Beinke said the area is carefully assessed before every prescribed

burn including taking into

account the weather, dryness of

vegetation and the site geography.

“The risks are relatively small compare to the possible consequences of a major bushfire occuring during the summer.”

Back up resources and fall-

back positions are available in the event of a prescribed burn crossing containment lines, according to Mr Bienke.

Napperby Country Fire Service captain Shane Fantinel said that other CFS crews in these areas were on standby if required to take part in the burn offs.

“The burns are part of the fire prevention strategy and achieve two things.

“They get rid of fuel loads that pose a potential problem, or patch burns so that if a fire reaches that area it will burn out,” he said.

Other prescribed burnings have been carried out across the Flinders Ranges in the past.

The DEH expected the smoke from the prescribed burns to be visible from Port Augusta and Port Pirie, through to Wilmington and Melrose and from National Highway

One.