So with bush fire season upon us and heat waves to deal with, the question to be asked, is Goondiwindi in danger?

Area Director of Fire Services Jeff Fechner says, "No".

"I don’t believe Goondiwindi faces the similar fire dangers as other parts of the country," Mr Fechner said.

"We don’t have the hills and valleys and we certainly don’t have the forests which provide so much of the on-the-ground fuel to keep a fire going.

"Here we have a lot of open farming country and even though we have grass fires it is within our capability to contain them.

"The council does have a Disaster Management Plan and they conducted a major exercise just recently to deal with a major explosion caused by dust in container bins and silos."

Peter Stewart, CEO of the Goondiwindi Regional Council, said that the disaster management plan was well in place and all emergency services would be ready to activate the plan if needed.

"The council has reviewed the plan recently and conducted an exercise which would have dealt with an explosion in town," Mr Stewart said.

"The biggest risk for Goondiwindi would be a major flood.

"Another major disaster would be something like a bus accident that would need a response from all our emergency services."

What to do

So what do residents do if Goondiwindi is stricken by a disaster?

Call the police? Call the ambulance? Call the State Emergency Service? Call the fire brigade? First things first: call 000.

Under new plans, the Local Area Disaster Management Group will be co-ordinating the district’s response.

Former police officer Cr Rick Kearney will be the chair of the LDMG.

"In the event of a major diaster, the mayor has a critical role reassuring the community and dealing with the press. That’s more important than chairing the group," Cr Kearney said.

A councillor must be the chair, so if Cr Kearney is away, he appoints another councillor.

In the event of an emergency, the fire station becomes the Centre of Operations.

Unless the emergency involves a fire, in which case LADMG will use the old Waggamaba Shire Board Room instead.

"There has to be one group to coordinate the town’s emergency service response," Cr Kearney said.

The town’s Welfare Committee (which includes groups like the Red Cross) will be in charge of dealing with the recovery.