Cars and outbuildings destroyed by Tas bushfire
Cars and outbuildings destroyed by Tas bushfire
06 February 2013
published by www.abc.net.au
Australia — A bushfire burning north of Hobart has reached properties on the outskirts of Molesworth, Glenlusk and Collinsvale.
Late on Wednesday, the fire’s status was upgraded to an emergency after burning more than 300 hectares of vegetation so far.
More than 60 firefighters and three helicopters are fighting the blaze.
The fire broke out on Glen Dhu Road shortly before 2:00pm (AEDT).
Fire service spokesman Phil Douglas says the fire front has reached the outskirts of communities and has already destroyed some cars and outbuildings.
“We are doing direct fire suppression around those properties,” he said.
Spokesman Andrew McGuinness says strong winds and high temperatures are expected to ease tonight, and pick up again tomorrow.
“Certainly the conditions up there at the moment are bad for fire fighting, and they are in property protection mode at the moment, but we are expecting those conditions to abate and allow fire fighters to do some work up there to contain this fire but we are not expecting the fire to be contained overnight,” he said.
The Tasmanian Fire Service says some residents have been evacuated, but only as a precaution because Glen Dhu Road is a dead-end.
The Molesworth Community Hall has been set up as a refuge.
Parts of Glen Dhu, Tanglewood and Collins Cap roads have been closed.
Tracey Walker lives in Glen Dhu road and says the fire was about 200 metres away when she got home from work.
“Smoke had come through quite quickly, the wind had actually changed direction also, which then started to blow smoke up towards our house,” she said.
“So all the embers and stuff were flying into the house as well, which was quite frightening.”
She says she just had enough time to grab a change of clothes and her pets, which include show dogs.
“I actually have 12 dogs at home and six baby puppies so my number one priority was to get home and get them safely out. Now I’m actually with my mum, which is probably five kilometres down the road,” she said.
Molesworth resident Adrian Dalton has stayed to defend his home.
“It’s all coming straight through here, we’ve managed to stop it at the road here before it jumps the fence, but I’ve just noticed it’s got back up into the thick virgin forest up the back there so hopefully the firies can get up in amongst the fire trails and put it out before it goes down the gully,” he said.
The Education Department says the Collinsvale and Molesworth Primary schools will be closed tomorrow.
The temperature in the state’s south topped 30 degrees today.
There’s a total fire ban in place tomorrow for the southern and northern regions.
