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Gippsland Region Fires

Community Update - January 16 2003

By DSE / CFA - 16th January 2003 - Back to News

Fire crews from the Departments of Sustainability and Environment, Primary Industries, Parks Victoria and the CFA are currently working on containing the western boundary of the Razorback fire, on the Omeo Highway. There have been several spotovers here, which crews are also working on containing.

Thick smoke has restricted the use of aircraft in battling a big blaze in the high country of north east Victoria.

"Our plans to deploy fire bombing aircraft have been frustrated first by low cloud at the Benambra airstrip, then by thick smoke at the fire," Incident Controller, Ben Rankin said.

"Despite this, our ground crews have been making good progress in building containment lines around the main fire and spot fires."

Extensive backburning has been carried out in the north east section of the fire, with more planned for tonight to strengthen control lines on the northern end of the fire.

Mr Rankin said that he hoped firefighters would be able to backburn tonight to consolidate the western boundary and in addition, fall back lines are being prepared.

"There is some fire activity up there, but conditions are relatively mild at the moment," he said.

A CFA crew has been posted to patrol around the Glen Wills and Glen Valley areas. There is no direct threat to communities at this time.

Maps indicating the latest boundary of the fire have been put up on notice boards in Omeo and Benambra.

At this stage, the nearby communities of Glen Wills and Glen Valley are not threatened, but Mr Rankin said that residents need to take responsibility for their own safety

For further information on parks and forests, contact Parks Victoria 131 963. For information about public road closures and threats to private property please call the Victoria Police Information Line on 1 800 444 343.

This information is provided by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (incorporating the Department of Primary Industries and Parks Victoria) in partnership with the Country Fire Authority to protect our rural land in Victoria. More information is available on the DSE website: www.nre.vic.gov.au and on the CFA website: www.cfa.vic.gov.au .

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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