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Gippsland Fire: Push To Contain Snowy Fire

Current efforts boosted by the arrival of a strike team

By DSE/CFA - 13th February 2003 - Back to News

The push continued today to prevent the fire in the Snowy River National Park crossing the Snowy River near Gelantipy.

This effort was boosted this afternoon by the arrival of a strike team and an Ericsson Aircrane to tackle the fire which continues to burn in the Park. Another section of the same fire is gradually moving east and will be tackled more closely tomorrow.

In the area controlled by the Orbost Incident Management Team (IMT), a spot-over near Tubbut was contained, while clearer conditions made it possible to do a large amount of mapping of the fires from the air.

The Dargo IMT was concentrating on the fire that’s been burning around the Sarah Spur and Mount Ewan. Thanks to careful planning and close monitoring, the fire burned parallel to containment lines, effectively creating an even wider firebreak.

Gippsland’s other main areas of concern this afternoon have been around Cobungra and Bindi where firefighters spent the day working hard to extinguish grass fires.

In most other areas today has been a day of further strengthening control lines, backburning and ensuring that any breaches of the control lines are quickly attended to.

A lightning-caused fire that started in remote country last Friday near Mt Ellery (near Goongerah) has so far burnt about 10 hectares and is being monitored closely.

Meanwhile, 19 New Zealand Alpine fire specialists will head home this evening after nearly three weeks of assisting with fire efforts near Swifts Creek. They leave with the considerable thanks of the local residents and their Victorian colleagues. Another contingent of NZ Alpine fire specialists will arrive in Melbourne for orientation and deployment, later today.

Anyone living, working or travelling in Gippsland who has concerns or questions about the fires should contact the Gippsland Community Fire Information Line: 1800 668 066

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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