It does not seem too long ago that the South Coast was deluged with rain and some of our towns and suburbs were flooded. All that water, one would think, would dampen the potential for fire. Not so. In fact, it arrived at the very worst time for firefighters.

After all the rain, conditions were too wet to conduct hazard reduction burns. The dump of water fuelled growth in the bush just in time for the heat to dry it out and turn it into a worrying fuel load. And the heat, just like the rain before it, meant hazard burns had to be put off.

Now, with the official start of bushfire season, the Rural Fire Service is pleading with residents to reduce their risk of property loss, injury or even death by getting into the spring routine of clearing vegetation from around the home, cleaning out out gutters, removing combustibles and, above all, making a bushfire survival plan.

With the signs of a ferocious El Nino weather pattern already making themselves felt, there is no time like the present to get our properties in order and make sure that in the event of a fire we all have a plan to get out or stay and fight before it is too late.

And as the RFS keeps telling us year in, year out, planning to have a bushfire survival plan is no plan at all. While we make sure our home insurance is paid up, too many of us forget to protect our most precious asset – our lives. That is what the bushfire survival plan is all about.

The statutory Bush Fire Danger Period runs from October 1 to March 31. If local conditions change that period may change. And that means fires in the open will require a Fire Permit.

These are relatively simple to obtain. Just contact your local Rural Fire Brigade. It’s a routine most of us follow in the Shoalhaven but, unfortunately, a small minority of people are prepared to risk it, with sometimes devastating consequences. And, of course, there are always the disturbed fire bugs who start blazes. Suspicious activity in the bush on hot days should be reported.