North Tas bushfire triples in size
North Tas bushfire triples in size
29 November 2006
published by www.abc.net.au
Tasmania, Australia — A bushfire burning in northernTasmania has almost tripled in size overnight.
Gusting winds of up to 40 kilometres-an-hour has causedthe fire in the Bell Bay-Longreach area to spread north.
The blaze, which started on Monday, has now burnt about1,000 hectares of state and private forest at Tippogoree Hills.
District officer Jeffrey Harper says the wind is bothassisting and hampering fire fighters’ efforts to contain the blaze.
“The edge that ran on us last night and caused usproblems, the wind is blowing it back on to itself on that edge, however westill have the northern edge, which we still haven’t got containment linesaround,” he said.
“So it’s actually advancing the fire towards thenorth. There is still a fair bit of vegetation to burn up around there.”
Mr Harper says there are no houses under threat at themoment, but could be later in the day.
Yesterday the fire burned close to the Gunns woodchipmill at Longreach.
