It seems that fire season has come early to Canyonleigh. Since mid-July 2023 there have been six incidents that have required RFS response and assistance. Here’s a brief recap:

19 July – pile burn escaped on a property on Hawkeshill Road. Even though the fire was small and quickly contained, it could have caused concern if weather conditions changed. Many thanks to brigades from Moss Vale and Penrose that responded and dealt with the fire.

30 July – multiple RFS brigades responded to a large grass fire caused by an escaped pile burn on Canyonleigh Road. Our brigade was the first on the scene and confronted with a fast-moving grass fire. We were quickly joined by brigades from Exeter, Wingello, Bundanoon, Berrima and Moss Vale and worked quickly to bring the fire under control.

12 August – two fires for the price of one! Mid-morning we were called to a large grass fire on Foxgrove Road. The fire was fanned by strong westerly winds, which had abated by late morning. Some 8 hectares of grass burnt very quickly. Once again, thanks to brigades from Moss Vale, Berrima and Exeter that joined us to control and extinguish this fire. Then, as we were finally blacking-out the site, the crew from Moss Vale spotted smoke west of the Foxgrove & Canyonleigh Road intersection. Luckily for the owners there were four fire trucks on hand to quickly extinguish another escaped burn which was heading into bushland.

26 August – another escaped fire broke out on Bangadilly Road, but was quickly contained before it impacted a neighbour’s property.

27 August – an unsupervised fire escaped into bushland and grass on a property on the corner of Old Coowong and Tugalong Roads. Canyonleigh brigade was quickly on the scene and limited the fire’s spread. We were joined by brigades from Bundanoon, Moss Vale, Penrose and Exeter to finally extinguish and black-out the incident.

And its not even bush fire season yet.