FED: NSW firefighters offer assistance to Victoria
01 Feb 2009 10:51 AM
Subject: FED: NSW firefighters offer assistance to Victoria FED: NSW firefighters offer assistance to Victoria
SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - NSW firefighters are on standby to help their Victorian counterparts battling blazes in Victoria.
Some relief is in sight, with temperatures expected to drop to about 29 degrees in the Latrobe Valley, in Victoria's southeast, where hundreds of Victorian firefighters are battling a deliberately lit bushfire.
Twenty-eight homes and 60 sheds have been lost at Delburn, with the number expected to rise as fire authorities continue to confirm property losses over the next few days.
"As we have in the past, NSW stands ready to deploy resources south of the border, as required," NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in a statement on Sunday.
"This includes the deployment of frontline firefighters, aviation experts and fire managers to assist in protecting properties and helping to bring fires under control."
NSW Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan said he would speak with his Victorian counterpart Bob Cameron this weekend to reinforce the offer of assistance.
In NSW firefighters are working on a bushfires on the state's south coast.
A fire in the South East Forest National Park, about 25 kilometres west of Pambula, has burnt about 150 hectares of bushland.
A fire in the Budawang National Park, 30 kilometres north-west of Batemans Bay, has burnt about 2,000 hectares over the past 11 days.
AAP bc/nf =0A
FED: NSW firefighters offer assistance to Victoria