Farmer frustrated with fire ban, but CFA says it's the right call

CFA west region deputy chief officer Michael Boatman said the ban was called on Friday, as more than 10 per cent of District 17 was forecast to have a fire danger index rating of more than 50.

Mr Boatman said based on the forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology, and through consultation with CFA leaders in District 17 and District 16, the fire ban was the right decision.

Mr Rethus, however, said the forecast did not eventuate for the southern parts of the district.

Horsham hit a high of 33 degrees on Saturday.

Rain then fell sporadically across the district on Saturday night.

Harvesting is still legal during a total fire ban, but Mr Rethus said bulk handlers often closed based on advice, essentially "grinding harvest to a halt".

He said the "blanket rules" imposed across the whole district were not the best measure.

"I just think it was completely unfair to have the rule in place for the whole region," he said.

"For farmers, I think there needs to be more of a risk analysis - there might be a low probability of stopping a fire, versus a huge impact on farmers."

Mr Rethus said he was concerned the threshold for a total fire ban day was getting too low.

"I fully respect a total fire ban, but we have to be careful that we don't start incrementally tightening the restrictions to the point where our jobs become nigh-on impossible," he said.

"You've got to still be able to let farmers do their job. I don't mean harvesting on super hot days, but we have to be reasonable, and weigh up the risks.

"It was really good conditions for harvesting yesterday."

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Mr Boatman said it was possible but rare to change a total fire ban day once it is in place.

He said the geography of total fire bans had also recently changed to be more region-specific.

"Under the current system, there are nine districts across the state. Back in the day, it used to be the whole state, so we are making it more specific and doing it based on the best way to split the state to make decisions based on conditions," he said.

"I understand there were people wanting to harvest with the rain coming, but there is a lot of thinking that goes into the total fire ban. We go off the best intelligence we can and it's not a decision we make lightly."

Minyip farmer Ryan Milgate said it was an interesting and difficult issue.

He said he was often willing to halt harvest - and potentially lose money - for the sake of avoiding fires.

"I'm pretty happy when they do make the calls, to pull up and give it a rest - they make these decisions for good reason," he said.

"Sometimes you might get frustrated, and in the middle of harvest it's easy to get a little caught up in the emotion of needing to get things done, and the stress of the season.

"But sometimes we just need to step back and think a bit about the potential consequences, and remember why we're stopping."

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Mr Milgate is also a volunteer with the Boolite Fire Brigade.

"Horsham and south of there may have turned out a bit milder than predicted on Saturday, but I was up at a fire at Lah, and seeing how far that fire got and what it did, it was pretty hairy," he said.

"Saturday was a tough one. It didn't get very hot, but we had some severe wind come through around lunchtime. Literally as we stopped, the fire app went off and we got called to a fire."

Mr Milgate also backed the decisions of handlers to close on total fire ban days.

"We have to remember that they have a worksite there as well, and they've got a responsibility to their employees to make it safe," he said.

"If that means shutting at 10 in the morning before the wind picks up, then so be it."

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