Firefighters gain upper hand in Victoria
Firefighters gain upper hand in Victoria
9 December 2007
published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au
Australia — Firefighters believe they will have the last of several bushfires burning in Victoria under control by lunch time today.
Dense bushland and a swamp has hampered firefighters’ efforts to contain a 10.5-hectare blaze in the state’s south at Tidal River in the Wilsons Promontory national park, Department of Sustainability and Environment duty officer Alen Slijebcevic said.
“The only fire left is Tidal River in the Lilly Pilly Gully but it has not increased in size for two days,” he said.
“We will have a line around it by lunch time.”
Firefighters used water bombing aircraft to contain a bushfire yesterday, which destroyed more than 5,000 hectares of scrub in the Little Desert National Park in the state’s north-west.
They also contained a fire near near Mount Beckworth, just outside Ballarat, west of Melbourne.
Two smaller bushfires burning in state forest near Portland, in the state’s south-west, were also controlled.
Mr Slijebcevic said a bushfire about 12km west of Hotspur, near the Dartmoor-Hamilton Road, destroyed almost 500 hectares of forest.
A second smaller fire, also near Portland, had been burning 17km west-north-west of Heywood.
