Bobbiwaa fire near Killarney Gap and Narrabri swells to 2,000 hectares as RFS attempts to bring blaze under control

Bobbiwaa fire near Killarney Gap and Narrabri swells to 2,000 hectares as RFS attempts to bring blaze under control

16 February 2018

Published by http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/


AUSTRALIA – FIREFIGHTERS are continuing to attack a massive wildfire between Narrabri and Bingara which doubled in size in 24 hours.

The Bobbiwaa fire near Killarney Gap swelled to 2,000 hectares on Friday as temperatures nudged 40 degrees.

“There was a bit less wind today then expected so that certainly helped, but again we saw that erratic fire behaviour,” Namoi-Gwydir Inspector Angela Daley told The Leader. “We had a couple of spot overs our containment lines which didn’t help.”

While conditions should ease on Saturday to allow crews to get the upper hand, firefighters aren’t out of the woods yet.

“We had five choppers on Friday working pretty hard especially with those spot overs,” Inspector Daley said.

“We’ve had some dozers working down the eastern and western containment lines, continuing south and that is where we expect the fire to continue to grow over the coming days.”

On Saturday, crews will attack the fire, backburning around the Killarney Gap Road which is expected to remain closed.

“Conditions are expected to improve tomorrow on Saturday and we’re expecting a drop in temperature by about five degrees,” Inspector Daley said.

The Mount Kaputar area – where the fire is raging – is still bracing for a very high fire danger rating on Saturday, but the RFS said there was no fire bans in place.

Fire permits are still suspended in the North West area with the very high fire danger meaning no landholders can burn off.

The Northern Slope, covering Tamworth, as well as the New England will have a high fire danger rating for Saturday.


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