THE Tamworth region's firefighters will meet in the coming weeks to decide whether to bring forward the official start of this year's bushfire danger period.
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The region's neighbours on the Northern Tablelands will start their danger period on August 1 with a "problematic" season predicted.
This will include people in the Armidale, Glen Innes, Inverell, Tenterfield, Uralla and Walcha council areas.
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Tamworth Rural Fire Service (RFS) superintendent, Allyn Purkiss, said conditions were relatively favourable at home, with typically less windy conditions on the plains.
"We don't get the winds as bad as they do," he said.
"And we haven't been getting those escape burns, so the landholders have been looking after their fires and ringing to notify us when they do burn."
Supintendent Purkiss said the Tamworth bushfire management committee would meet in the coming weeks to discuss options in this region, but at this stage the start of the danger period remains October 1.
"Last year was pretty dry and awful, so there wasn't a lot of burning done," he said.
"A lot of paddocks are quite bare, there's not a lot of fuel on the ground.
"While ever their doing burns safely, we'll let them continue to do that to get as much hazard reduction done before it gets too hot and ordinary."
While residents across the region have a range of deadlines before a burning permit is required could be confusing, he said people could always contact their local fire control centre to make sure they're in the right council area.
Northern Tablelands Superintendent Chris Wallbridge said this season could be problematic with the worst drought on record gripping the region.
"With Armidale, Uralla, Guyra, Walcha, Glen Innes and Tenterfield all being on water restrictions and on-farm water sources almost non-existent, if a fire was to escape the lack of water and the increased distances firetrucks will have to travel to refill will make firefighting problematic," he said.
"Given the greater risks associated with the current climatic conditions and the need to conserve limited water resources we do have for domestic consumption, we are asking landholders to delay lighting fires in the interest of community safety."
From August 1, landholders will need a fire permit which can be obtained from their local fire control centre.