Bush fires may burn for weeks
A MASSIVE fire could continue burning for weeks in Victoria’s east as police investigate whether campers noticed anything suspicious before it started.
Nine homes have been destroyed and one man has died in the 50,000- hectare fire, although benign weather has slowed the blaze and no communities are under immediate threat.
Police have appealed for people to come forward if they saw anything suspicious in the hours leading up to the fire starting in Aberfeldy in Gippsland on Thursday morning.
Police say the witness appeal is part of their investigation into the cause of the fire that spread quickly on Friday, burning in mainly forest country, but was moving slowly yesterday.
Authorities are preparing for a protracted fight. Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley has said he expects fighting the fire to be a two- week campaign, warning that if it buries itself in deep-seated bush it could again come out near the communities of Heyfield and Maffra.
Authorities had been concerned the tiny town of Licola, which has been cut off and where about 10 residents and 30 firefighters remain, may be in the path of the fire as it travels northeast.
A State Control Centre spokeswoman said yesterday the edge of the slow-moving fire was about 15km from the town but it was not under immediate threat. A watch and act message for Licola has been downgraded to an advice alert.
Lapsley said additional air resources had been placed on standby to help fight the Gippsland fires, with the Elvis aircrane out of action due to a mechanical fault. ‘‘The slightly cooler conditions across the state, and short flight times, have allowed us to place additional resources on standby for the Gippsland fires,’’ Lapsley said.
‘‘ We will monitor the situation, including lightning strikes that occurred in the northeast overnight, before determining where and when the additional resources will be deployed.’’
There are 14 aircraft, 70 trucks and more than 270 personnel working on the Gippsland fires.
Police say nine properties have been lost in the area. Most are in or near Seaton, where five homes are believed lost.
The body of a man was found in a burnt-out car in the Seaton area on Friday afternoon. No further details about his identity have been released.
The fire also destroyed four holiday homes within a national park and a number of permanent and non-permanent dwellings at the Glenmaggie caravan park, authorities say.
Residents are not yet allowed back into the Seaton area.
Meanwhile, New South Wales Acting Premier Andrew Stoner has paid tribute to the state’s firefighters as cooler and calmer weather descended on the state.
Stoner said the bushfires that have raged across NSW over the past two weeks were some of the worst in years.
‘‘I applaud our firefighters for their hard work and professionalism in helping us avoid what could quite easily have been a disaster,’’ Stoner said in a statement. He said the work of firefighters and related agencies had averted ‘‘a potentially tragic disaster’’.
At midday on Saturday, 142 fires were still burning, 29 of them uncontained.
The Rural Fire Service (RFS) says the weather change from the searing temperatures and strong winds of Friday was in firefighters’ favour, enabling all alerts to be wound back.
‘‘While there is still more work to do in order to bring these fires under control, we need to give credit to our firefighters for their heroic efforts over the past two weeks,’’ Stoner added.