In a fuel reduction burn Forestry Tasmania and the Tasmania Fire Service scorched 200 hectares of bush behind Beaconsfield yesterday.

Salisbury Hill is a narrow four-kilometre ridge carpeted with highly flammable flora between the West Tamar Highway and Flowery Gully.

The surrounds are peppered with dozens of properties in nearby communities fearful of a York Town fire repeat, which risked engulfing the Beaconsfield Hospital four years ago.

FT fire management officer Bob Knox said there was a sense of urgency to burn off the amassed fuel-load before the bushfire season arrived.

‘‘A surprising amount of people live all through the forests around Beaconsfield. It’s a lot of houses even in the 1.5 kilometres around this burn,’’ he said.

‘‘There’d be a terrible fire running the hill in summer time ... there’d be sparks throwing all around.

‘‘Ridges also throw sparks across the countryside so to reduce the fuels on that is a good result.’’

Nearby landowner and Winkleigh firefighter Keith Darke said the hill had not been burnt off for decades.

‘‘It’s a potential hotspot and people live and have property all around it,’’ he said.

‘‘I’ve got a plantation on my property and I live in a bush environment so it’s good to see [it getting done].’’

The burnoff involved about 25 personnel from FT, Winkleigh and Beaconsfield brigades, 10 fire tankers and a helicopter capable of spitting out fire into dense hard-to-access scrub.

While things went smoothly there were serious risks if they did not.

Large transmission wires, which cross the burnoff area, feed power to Bell Bay and Basslink.

These wires posed a serious risk to firefighters given the high-voltage electricity  can jump the cables and arc to the ground if the fire smoke gets too thick.

Careful preparation went into the fuel reduction with FT waiting four years for conditions such as wind direction, humidity and soil moisture to align.

Mr Knox said the burnoff would lower the fuel load for up to 10 years.