Menangle's brigade ran its Get Ready Weekend to help residents prepare for bush fire season

The brigade spent Sunday 20 September 2026 on the grass at Rotolactor Park, Menangle, with its trucks open and a table of handouts. Menangle is across the Nepean from Menangle Park, in Wollondilly Shire rather than Campbelltown — and that boundary decides the rule the day was built around. The NSW Rural Fire Service’s statutory Bush Fire Danger Period runs from 1 October to 31 March, and what the brigade spent the day handing out applies on both sides of it.

A turn on the hose at Rotolactor Park, Menangle.

What the weekend is

The RFS’s 2026 page says the weekend “will be held across NSW, with most events taking place on 19–20 September”, and puts the purpose as helping residents “understand your bush fire risk and take simple steps to prepare your home, property and family”. It adds that “every event is different, but many include demonstrations, displays, family-friendly activities, practical advice from volunteers and resources to help you prepare for the bush fire season”. That describes what was on the grass at Menangle: an appliance with its cab open, a hose run out across the lawn for anyone who wanted a turn, a barbecue trailer, marquees of printed material, and volunteers to talk to.

Two of the brigade’s volunteers in front of Menangle 1 at Rotolactor Park, Menangle.

The brigade’s tanker on the grass at Rotolactor Park, Menangle. It is lettered MENANGLE 1, and under the crest on its cab door, SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS.

Open, in the brigade’s use of the word, means you can climb in.

Inside the cab at Menangle: the two-way radio on the dash, and the reserve and its houses through the windscreen.

In the back of the cab, in the plastic fire helmets.

Before 1 October

The RFS states the season’s dates plainly: “The statutory Bush Fire Danger Period runs from 1 October to 31 March, however it may vary due to local conditions.” During that period, lighting a fire in the open requires a Fire Permit, and the RFS notes a permit can be required at other times too — for instance where a fire would be likely to endanger a building.

A permit can be applied for online via the RFS website, which takes applications for Rural Fire districts and points to Fire and Rescue NSW for theirs. If you are unsure whether you need one or need assistance, the RFS says to “contact your local NSW RFS Fire Control Centre, or NSW Fire and Rescue fire station”; Campbelltown’s is the Macarthur office, 02 9608 7777. The service’s own public line, printed on the cards the brigade was handing out, is the Bush Fire Information Line, 1800 679 737. A fire is 000.

What the season means for a block in the estate — bush fire prone land, the BAL rating on your lot, what complying development will and will not allow — is in floods, fire and storms.

The total fire ban rules

The brigade’s table carried the RFS’s own printed material, including a card on total fire bans. The rules below are the RFS’s published ones, from its website.

The general requirement: “During a Total Fire Ban you cannot light, maintain or use a fire in the open, or to carry out any activity in the open that causes, or is likely to cause, a fire.”

On barbecues, the RFS draws the line at the fuel. “A barbeque or wood fire pizza oven which uses solid fuel, such as wood, charcoal or heat beads, cannot be used outside during a Total Fire Ban.” An electric barbecue may be used for cooking if it is “under the direct control of a responsible adult, who is present at all times while it is operating, and no combustible material is allowed within two metres at any time it is operating”. A gas barbecue may be used on those same two conditions plus two more: “You have an immediate and continuous supply of water”, and the barbecue is “within 20 metres of a permanent private dwelling such as a home”, or in a designated picnic area with an appliance approved by Council, National Parks or State Forest.

The RFS puts the penalty for lighting a fire on a total fire ban day at “an on the spot fine of $2200”, rising in court to “a fine of up to $5500 and/or 12 months gaol”.

Your local brigade

One item on the grass highlighted the focus of the day. A board propped against the front of a vehicle carries an aerial map outlined in red, beside the fire danger rating scale, under two lines set in the board’s own capitals:

TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR FIRE PLAN YOUR LOCAL BRIGADE IS MENANGLE

The marquees beside it read “RFS / MENANGLE BRIGADE” and the tanker is lettered MENANGLE 1. The teardrop flag standing between the marquees is the RFS’s own campaign banner: “How fireproof is your plan? Ask a firefighter”.

An RFS fire-plan board at Rotolactor Park, Menangle. Its map carries a legend for brigade stations and RFS brigade areas.

If you have questions about your local brigade, or need specific advice for your street, the Macarthur Fire Control Centre (02 9608 7777) can assist.

Before the season

The thing the brigade was asking people to do is the thing that costs nothing and gets left undone: write a Bush Fire Survival Plan before the danger period rather than during it. The RFS sets it out in four steps — “discuss what to do if a bush fire threatens your home”, “prepare your home and get it ready for bush fire season”, “know the bush fire alert levels”, and “keep up to date with all bush fire information numbers, websites and apps” — and says a plan can be made online “in as little as five minutes”.

Floods, fire and storms sets out what those steps mean for a house in Menangle Park, including the nearest Neighbourhood Safer Places, which are not in this suburb.