FIREFIGHTERS extinguished a small blaze at McFarlanes Park behind Tumut Community Preschool on Wednesday.
Staff from Tumut Community Preschool, which backs on to the park, alerted emergency services at 10.20am of a fire in the reserve, and followed their well-rehearsed Evacuation procedures which involved moving the preschool children to a safer place within the service premises.
Fire and Rescue Tumut and Tumut RFS crews were quickly on the scene and put the fire out before it got beyond burning through a few square metres.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Tumut Community Preschool Service Manager Tess Herring said the park gets frequently overgrown very easily and that it is often hard to see the fires when they first ignite because of the steepness of the terrain in the park between the preschool’s fence and the footpath running through the park.
Ms Herring said the preschool makes a customer request each year to Snowy Valleys Council to maintain the park to reduce the danger from fires.
“We have one or two fires in the park every season,” she said.
“We are talking to council to work out a plan with them to co-operate on effectively reducing the fire risk from the reserve to the Preschool premises to make the park safer.
“The biggest concern we have is that we have children here. Our priority is always children and staff safety, and whilst we have robust emergency procedures and drills in place, reducing the risk of an emergency occurring is preferable.
“Fortunately the area is still quite green there at the moment, but when the long grasses and shrubs dry out, we have seen the fire move more quickly. It races up the embankment little hill towards our boundary. We are very grateful to the Fire and Rescue and RFS Teams who respond so promptly to these events.”
A Snowy Valleys Council spokesperson said Council maintains the park on a fortnightly basis subject to season, weather, and available staffing. The steep bank behind the preschool however is only maintained 2 – 3 times per year as it is extremely steep and dangerous.
