After another good rain season, the vegetation is thick and now drying out. And it won't
be long before the cold fronts and their accompanying winds will be bearing down on us.
THINK
FIREBREAKS!
Besides being a legal requirement for every landowner, firebreaks
are an essential tool to reduce the risk of loss due to veldfires.
REDUCE THE FUEL LOAD
REDUCE THE RISK
A firebreak does not necessarily stop a fire, especially in severe weather conditions, but it can:
reduce the intensity of an approaching fire
provide access for people and vehicles to the fire front
provide a safer area from which to fight a fire
provide a point from which to start a backburn, if permitted
You Can Make Firebreaks By
Manually clearing the area, removing grass and bushes
Slashing with a weed eater or bush cutter
Use a chansaw to remove bigger bushes
Dragging a heavy tyre behind a tractor
Ploughing
Hiring a grader or dozer
Using a controlled fire
Extract from the National Veld &
Forest Fire Act:
"An owner, who is obliged to prepare and maintain a firebreak must ensure that, with due regard to the weather, climate, terrain and vegetation of the area -
it is wide enough and long enough to have a reasonable chance of preventing a veldfire from spreading to or from neighbouring land;
it does not cause soil erosion; and
it is reasonably free of inflammable material capable of carrying a veldfire acrross it."
FPA Members are fortunate to have an excellent Heidelberg Working on Fire
team available to them for the clearing of problem areas during summer
and burning firebreaks during the early months of the fire season.
Most veldfires are caused by human activity over which we have no control
The HFPA urges you to protect yourselves and your property and preparing firebreaks is an excellent means of basic protection
