Winter is coming. 

While the long weekend heralded holidays, chocolate and religious celebrations for some, it also marked the end of daylight savings and the bush fire danger period.

Coming out of one of the driest winters on record, the Riverina’s Rural Fire Service volunteers prepared themselves for a long and challenging spring-summer season.

While the Riverina escaped the brunt of a busy fire danger period, agencies across the state were called to more than 13,000 bushfires and grass fires after June.

Riverina zone operations officer Brad Stewart said the region had been lucky.

“It was gold for us,” Mr Stewart said. “I don’t think we had a fire exceed 30 hectares.”

He said rain had been sufficient to dampen the risk here, but the rest of NSW had been less fortunate. 

But Mr Stewart said the most recent bush fire on the far south coast proved it did not have to be the middle of summer for a fire to get out of control.

In lieu of this, he urged anyone lighting a fire in the open to take care and reminded residents they were legally required to provide 24-hours notice to their immediate neighbours and control district beforehand. 

“It’s still very dry,” he said. “And the long-term weather forecast isn’t promising for rain … we’re teetering on the edge of a drought.” 

With an increase in burn-offs on properties across the region, Mr Stewart said it was going to get smokey. 

“We want to remind residents to only call triple-0 if there is an unattended fire or a fire posing threat to life or property,” he said. “That’s important.”

Mr Stewart said it looked as though it would be another cold, dry winter. 

His words come on the back of a chilling forecast, with a previously accurate but amateur meteorologist, David Taylor predicting the southern states could be staring down the barrel of the coldest winter in a century. 

​As electric blankets and gas-heaters make their way into homes, firefighters urge residents to change smoke alarm batteries.