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Update On Gippsland Fires

Conditions overnight have been very difficult on the Blue Rock fire near Tanjil South, with strong winds of 75 kph and temperatures of up to 29 degrees. The fire has reached over 1000 hectares in size.

By Department of Sustainability and Environment - 15th April 2004 - Back to News

Incident Controller, Ewan Waller said that good work by CFA and DSE crews held the fire overnight under severely erratic fire behaviour with spotting and crowning.

"Our plans to put control lines in have been severely restricted because of these conditions," Mr Waller said.

"The eastern edge of the fire does not have control lines around a stretch of five kilometres and is likely to move south and east with today's predicted strong northerly winds."

The fire has not yet crossed Bull Beef Creek and the strategy is to try to track that today with dozers and hold the fire there with aircraft bombing during the day.

Residents to the south of the fire in Tanjil South should activate their bushfire plans and listen to local radio today for regular updates on the fire situation.

The fire at Patrol Road, seven kilometres east of Neerim South is now close to 200 hectares in size. Fire crews here have been putting in dozer control lines all night and will continue with this work throughout the day.

Incident Controller Bob Brinkman said that the northerly winds are pushing the fire southwards towards Mc Dougals Road and Inglemans Road.

"The fire has burnt in private property and there are about 25 houses within two kilometres of the fire front," Mr Brinkman said.

"DSE is working closely with the CFA and the local Community Fireguard to establish a phone tree and keep the local community informed of any developments."

The fire at Flaggy Creek near Bairnsdale has been contained at 33 hectares, with some small spotovers into private property.

Incident Controller, Anne Geary said that crews worked hard overnight to contain the fire and the plan today is to consolidate the fallback lines to the south of the fire edge.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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