More than 1000 property owners in Mitcham and Adelaide Hills council regions ordered to reduce fire hazards MORE than 1000 property owners in the vulnerable Adelaide Hills need to clear bushfire hazards by Sunday or risk a fine. Mitcham Council, which incorporates the urban interface suburbs of Belair, Blackwood, Hawthorn- dene, Coromandel Valley and Upper Sturt, has issued 670 hazard-reduction notices to residents ahead of this year's fire danger season. This is up from the 640 notices it issued last year. Adelaide Hills Council has issued 389 of the notices - 11 fewer than last year - after inspecting more than 1400 properties this month. Those who fail to comply with the notices face fines of $315 or the payment of costs for council contractors to do the work. Inspections of the properties ordered to clean up will start next week, after the start of the fire danger season for the Mt Lofty Ranges and Adelaide Metropolitan areas tomorrow. The need to reduce fire hazards on private properties comes after a parliamentary report tabled this week said the Adelaide Hills would be vulnerable in the event of a serious bushfire. Country Fire Service director of preparedness operations Leigh Miller said the results of the inspections were "concerning." Mr Miller said it highlighted the need for property owners to have a bushfire action plan. "The CFS advises the community to prepare a bushfire survival plan, including all the family, and rehearse it," he said. Mr Miller said it was often small vegetation - or fine fuels - that presented the greatest threat in the Hills. "Fine fuels (less than the size of a pencil) pose the greatest threat as they will be immediately ignited by a fire and contribute significantly to its intensity," he said. Reducing the amount of fine fuels on a property reduces the fire's intensity and consequently the amount of damage caused by the fire. Mr Miller said it was possible some residents still underestimated the danger they face. "Some residents may be new to the area and others may need a reminder of the bushfire risk," he said. Local government issuing hazard reduction notices demonstrates that they are taking their role in bushfire prevention seriously. State Parliament's Natural Resources Committee this week heard evidence that most homes in the Adelaide Hills would be vulnerable if the area was subjected to fires on the scale of 1983's Ash Wednesday. The committee also heard that homes built since 2009 that complied with new bushfire-proofing standards remained vulnerable. Committee members agreed bushfire bunkers should be encouraged in the Hills but rejected making them mandatory because of the costs involved.