Fed:Bushfire conditions ease in 3 states, but NSW on high alert

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-2009
Fed:Bushfire conditions ease in 3 states, but NSW on high alert

Eds: Takes in Bushfires Vic, NSW, SA and WA



MELBOURNE, Dec 17 AAP - Fire crews expect to contain or control four bushfires burning
in Victoria ahead of a cool southwesterly change Thursday morning.

The largest of those fires is burning in a logging coupe at Cann River, about 450km
east of Melbourne in remote East Gippsland.

The fire had burned about 60 hectares overnight but Department of Sustainability and
Environment (DSE) crews expect to have the fire contained by late Thursday morning, DSE
state duty officer Dennis Ward said.

The fire is not threatening private property but is blanketing the towns of Cann River,
Cabbage Tree Creek and Club Terrace, along with the Princes Highway, with smoke.

Three other fires - at Pakenham and Mount Eliza on Melbourne's southeastern fringe,
and at at Mount Arapiles, near Horsham in Victoria's west - were likely to be controlled
overnight, he said.

Mr Ward said that despite Wednesday's blistering heat, there were few serious fires
despite 119 outbreaks.

"It was a pretty good day. The fires that are still on the board are pretty small," he said.

"It was good even with the heat of the day. We did quite well."

A total fire ban has been issued for the northeast region, covering towns including
Wodonga, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Seymour and Echuca, where conditions are expected to
remain hot and windy.

Hot temperatures and brisk winds are expected to keep NSW on a state of high alert
on Thursday after firefighters spent Wednesday battling several major bushfires.

Blazes in Windsor Downs, in Sydney's northwest, and Bringelly, in the city's southwest,
were controlled on Wednesday night.

The Bringelly blaze burnt around 20 hectares of grassland but posed no threat to property
and was put out before 7pm (AEDT). Firefighters are due to spend Wednesday night at the
scene damping down.

A Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokesman said the Windsor Downs fire was still burning
on Wednesday night but had been contained.

A grassland fire broke out at Parramatta, in Sydney's west, on Wednesday night but
posed no threat to property and was expected to be controlled, while firefighters battled
bushfires in the Upper Hunter and southwest of Bundarra, in the state's north on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts hot and dry conditions on Thursday with temperatures
expected to reach 40 degrees celsius in western Sydney, although some areas of the state
could experience isolated showers later in the day.

In South Australia, there were no major bushfire incidents on Wednesday despite catastrophic
fire danger ratings on the Yorke and eastern Eyre peninsulas and severe and extreme conditions
elsewhere.

"(Wednesday) was pretty quiet even though the fire danger index was at the maximum
in some areas," a spokesman at the fire communications centre in Adelaide said.

Cooler conditions were expected in SA on Thursday, he said.

A severe fire danger rating has been declared for the goldfields region of Western
Australia for Thursday.

A fire near Harvey, southeast of Perth, has burnt through more than 10,000 hectares
of state forest but is not threatening private property.

About 70 firefighters will work to consolidate containment lines on Thursday.

AAP jrd/cdh

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES AM UPDATE

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