Blaze threatens Tasmanian town
Blaze threatens Tasmanian town
7 March 2006
published by http://www.abc.net.au
A fire in north-east Tasmania has come within a few hundred metres of the town of Gladstone.
The Parks and Wildlife Service says it appears several fires were deliberately lit on Saturday night next to the Mount Cameron Regional Reserve in the far north-east.
The fires have joined into a major bushfire, which has burnt out about 700 hectares of the reserve.
Liz Wren, from Parks and Wildlife, says crews from her division and the Tasmania Fire Service are now working to create firebreaks and strengthen existing boundaries on the outskirts of Gladstone.
“We are having trouble with it because of the fairly strong winds gusting up to about 40 kilometres per hour, and it is getting fairly close to the village of Gladstone,” she said.
“But we’ve got quite a few crews here and we’ve also got some helicopter support, so things are holding at the moment.”
