NSW: Hot, dry weather will make bushfires worse - RFS
07 Jan 2009 1:46 PM
SYDNEY, Jan 7 AAP - Hot and dry weather across NSW will intensify existing bushfires and may cause more to ignite in coming days, the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) says.
Firefighters are already battling two serious blazes, one in the NSW southern highlands and one in the Hunter region, which between them have burnt almost 700 hectares of forest.
RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has urged rural homeowners to prepare their properties, by removing flammable debris and cleaning gutters, now the fire season is actually under way.
"We don't want the welcome relief we've had over spring to be a trigger for complacency," Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
"What we've seen in the last 24 hours and indeed we'll see today is the weather ingredients of hot dry windy conditions.
"Given the underlying moisture deficit in NSW ... it does not take very much to have the vegetation susceptible to fire and, if fire ignites, the rapid spread of fire, which is what we saw yesterday afternoon."
Mr Fitzsimmons said ground and aerial fire crews were attempting to control a massive blaze in Morton National Park in the southern highlands.
The fire, which was started by a lightning strike on Sunday, has already destroyed 600 hectares of national parkland.
"The focus there today is to look at establishing and developing containment lines so that following the change this afternoon we'll be able to take advantage of the weather over the weekend to bring about containment on that fire," he said.
Another fire in Yengo National Park has ravaged more than 80 hectares but is being brought under control.
A southerly change expected overnight will bring cooler temperatures and moister air, to make the firefighters' task easier.
