While the threat of bushfires may have subsided in some areas of northern NSW, the rest of the state still remains on high alert after NSW recorded its hottest summer on record and its driest summer since 1984.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Phil Koperberg told Sunrise Exchange News the 2005/06 fire season was affected by difficult weather conditions, particularly extreme temperatures on New Year’s Day, in which more then 6300 fires were attended by RFS volunteers.

“The threat of fires is still present in these areas although the risk of large, long-running bushfires is very much reduced given easing temperatures and rain in some parts of the state,” he said.

Although many thousands of firefighters were needed across the state this season, Mr Koperberg says it has been quieter than the “particularly difficult” seasons of 1994, 1997, 2001 and 2002/03.