Drake Rural Fire brigade captain Scott Corby has this message for the community.
From September 14 to October 6 there will be no fire permits issued for the Drake area.
On October 6, we will re-evaluate the situation and make a decision on whether to resume issuing permits or not.
Those landowners who have a current permit are still allowed to burn under the conditions listed on their permit.
I cannot stress enough to those with current permits to keep your burns in containment lines. Anyone who loses a burn onto a neighbours property will more than likely be investigated and possibly fined.
Over the last two weeks there have been quite a few lost permit burns in the Tenterfield LGA, as well as a couple of illegal fires.
Most of these lost burns was due to the landowner not monitoring the burn area long enough. Check your burn area every day for a couple of weeks. If anything is smouldering near the fire edge, put it out. If weather reports are predicting days of higher temperatures and winds, keep a close eye on your burn area. Prior to the change, if there is even a hint of smoke, wet it down.
The main reason we are not issuing permits is there are NO first response operational brigade members available over the next three weeks.
Currently, there is little chance of the Drake Brigade being able to respond to a triple zero call till early October. With upcoming school holidays and unexpected family emergencies, available members have dropped right off. 
These things happen and there is nothing we can do about it.
If a fire incident is ongoing, we may be able to get some backup members to attend, but there is no certainty as these member are not available all the time. Any 000 calls coming in over the next few weeks, we will be depending on help from our neighbouring brigades.
Our main problem is the drop off in operational brigade members since the beginning of this year. We’ve had several senior members step back due to age and health reasons.
Unexpectedly there are several who are moving away, some temporarily for 6 to 12 months, some permanently.
One main problem is the number of truck drivers. Over the previous couple of years we have been increasing our number of drivers to a comfortable level but that number is decreasing again. We can’t respond to a fire if we don’t have a licensed driver available.
So to finish off, I’d like to put it out there to the Drake community, think about joining the Drake Rural Fire Brigade. I’m putting this to old community members as well as the ones who have moved here recently. Find out more about joining the brigade here.
On current permits: A landowner who owns the property surrounds the Drake tip on Long Gully Road will be doing some pastoral regeneration burning from tomorrow, Thursday, September 17.
A few other landowners in Drake village will also be burning from tomorrow, Thursday, September 17 and Friday, September 18 so there may be quite a bit of smoke in the area.