Local firies lend a hand

More than 50 volunteers from the Queanbeyan Rural Fire Service and SES have been helping to combat blazes in the Southern Highlands, Blue Mountains and Hunter region in the past week.

"My guess is that we haven't seen the worse of this season," Lake George Zone district manager Tim Carroll said.

"It's only October, I suspect it will be a long and busy season."

Mr Carroll said although they were anticipating cooler conditions towards the end of the week they remain vigilant. The closest activity at the time of print was a fire burning at Mount Budawang on the edge of Palerange and the Shoalhaven.

"We will continue providing support to areas that need it," he said. "We'll also be monitoring any activity in the local area."

Mr Carroll said providing extra support was crucial in times like these.

"It's really essential, we all rely on help from out of the area," he said said.

"One of the worst fires in recent times was the Sand Hills fire, east of Bungendore. We received a good supply of firefighters from Sydney and I guess this is an opportunity to repay that and of course to help people in need.

"It's the nature of volunteer work, you join to help out in times of crisis and always try to help where you can."

Mr Carroll said volunteers had been helping with property protection, back burning, aviation support and incident management teams.

"It's a diverse range of work ... some have been helping the specialist remote area fire crew. They're helicoptered into isolated areas to work, this is high risk, volunteers have to be very fit and confident," he said.

Mr Carroll stressed the importance for local residents to be prepare their homes and have a bushfire survival plan in place.

"I urge residents to prepare themselves and their homes in case of a bushfire, by doing this, it makes our workplace much safer."

For more information on how to prepare your home in case of a bush fire visit www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.