Burn-off inaction criticised

Hazard reduction burning was a hot topic following the fire being mostly contained early Monday morning, with residents, including Mr Walker and Port Stephens mayor Bruce MacKenzie, blaming the incident on a lack of burning off before the fire season.

"The Rural Fire Service [RFS] tell you they have a plan, they are up 50 per cent on burning off, but in terms of [fire] fuel build-up it's never been worse," Mr Walker said.

Once a school teacher, Mr Walker said he was "conscripted" into the Lemon Tree Passage Bushfire Brigade in 1980 and made a life member when he retired in 1990.

He published a book, White Overall Days, about firefighting, where his research revealed a "worrying" decline in burning off.

"In the decade of the 1970s they [Bushfire Brigade] averaged 15 per year for the whole decade," he said.

"In the '80s they averaged nine and for the '90s one or two.

"Since then there has been virtually nothing, except after 2009 when bush went up in Victoria."

It shook the RFS out of a stupor "and they looked like they were burning off".

Both Mr Walker and Cr MacKenzie were vocal in disagreeing with NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons when he said it was "completing more hazard reduction work than ever before".

"We've gone from an average completion rate of 50 per cent or less only six years ago to now more than 80 per cent of annual program," he said.

Cr MacKenzie, also an ex-firefighter volunteer and a life member of the Salt Ash Bushfire Brigade, said residents should be permitted to do their own burning off.

However, Mr Walker said those decisions should be made by firefighters on the ground, as was done in his day.

"It [reducing fire fuel] will only improve when all decision making about burn-offs are returned to the fire captain level," Mr Walker said.