ACT Fire and Rescue community fire unit co-ordinator Tony Wiggan said Curtin, Dunlop, Hall, Lyons, O'Connor and Pearce, where some units were low on volunteer numbers, would also be targeted in campaigns next year.

Community fire units are comprised of residents on the urban fringe who are trained and equipped by ACT Fire and Rescue to prepare and defend their homes, and those belonging to their neighbours, against the threat of bushfires.

Figures supplied to the Sunday Canberra Times show that across the ACT, there are 788 members signed up across 55 units. Two units have been established in Denman Prospect but are not yet operational, while the territory's 58th unit is being set up in Gleneagles.

Mr Wiggan said about 160 more people had commenced the process of becoming community fire unit volunteers, but there was always a desire for more, and particularly so in the areas listed.

He encouraged Canberrans to visit the Emergency Services Agency website and find out if they lived in an area where there was a unit available to join.

In areas where units needed more volunteers, existing members would hold information sessions at the local shops and go doorknocking in a bid to recruit new blood.

Mr Wiggan said if people were concerned they were living in a high-risk area and there was no community fire unit, they should contact the agency and ask it to conduct a risk assessment.

He said he was due to conduct an assessment in Fisher after a woman recently did just that, with the outcome of the assessment to determine whether a new unit was necessary.

"[The risk assessment] is all do with whether you're on the western fringe, what sort of scrub and foliage you've got up close to your houses, and your street plan," he said.

"The newer suburbs have a different design, where you've got a bushfire abatement zone. They build the road, the house, and then they have a bit of grassed area before the bush.

"In the old days, it was the road, the house and then the bush."

Mr Wiggan said this was why many of the newer suburbs, like those in the Gungahlin region, did not have community fire units.

"When you do a bushfire risk assessment, [the newer Gungahlin suburbs] don't come up anywhere near as high-risk as places like Aranda or Higgins, where they back right onto the bush," he said.

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Once the Denman Prospect and Gleneagles units are operational, there will be community fire units in 26 ACT suburbs.

Chapman, which was hit particularly hard by the 2003 Canberra bushfires, has the highest number of units and volunteers, with seven and 120 respectively.

New crews are constantly being added to the community fire unit program, after a 2016 evaluation by risk management company Risk Frontiers urged the Emergency Services Agency to aim for growth of about four or five new units each year.

Mr Wiggan said one way the agency had looked to achieve this was by splitting units with a healthy number of volunteers in two, enabling them to cover more ground in their suburb.

As a large number of Canberrans prepare to leave the city on holidays for an extended period over Christmas and the new year, Mr Wiggan said they could look to protect their homes by adopting preventative measures used by community fire units.

"The biggest thing is to make sure you don't have leaves in your gutters, your gardens are clean and your lawns are mowed," he said.

"If you're going away for a long period, arrange a neighbour to look after your garden and make sure your trees keep being pruned.

"I would consider turning off the gas on your barbecues, too."