Hot conditions and the smoke settling across the Bega Valley on Thursday resulted in some residents being understandably concerned and a couple of false fire alarms were listed on the state fire service's official app.
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Smoke from bushfires in northern NSW and the Hawkesbury drifted south to the Far South Coast on the day, which saw temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius in Bega.
In the Bega Valley firefighters were patrolling a contained fire that started earlier in the week at Pericoe as a safety precaution, while late in the day a lightning strike at Yambulla started a fire that had reached 20ha by Friday, although it was being controlled.
But there were brief reports on the NSW Rural Fire Service's Fires Near Me app and website of incidents near Bermagui and Kalaru on Thursday.
RFS Superintendent John Cullen said people had seen the smoke coming from the north, which had looked "eerie" as it moved inland, and reported their concerns of fires.
As standard practice, these reports were marked on Fires Near Me before they were investigated by firefighters and the incidents were discovered to just be smoke.
"The smoke came in quickly and I can understand people thought there were fires," Superintendent Cullen said.
"All the smoke yesterday did look like fires and people did the right thing by reporting it."
When emergency services are alerted to a possible fire a white box is put on Fires Near Me to say the incident has been reported.
Firefighters then investigate the scene and if they decide there is a fire the box will change to blue to signify more information is coming through, or if it is a false alarm such as smoke then the white box is removed.
Superintendent Cullen said when residents see an incident on Fires Near Me they should wait for more information to appear, but if it does not look right then they should call Triple Zero.
Albert McKnight
Journalist at Bega District News.
Journalist at Bega District News.
