February 25, 2009

Firefighters are battling to contain seven bushfires still out of control in Victoria ahead of predicted heat and strong winds towards the end of the week.
Fire crews expect to contain the 2,700-hectare fire burning south of Daylesford by dawn and are strengthening control lines around the fire already contained at Upwey, in the Dandenongs.
But temperatures up into the 30s by Thursday, and extreme heat and a strong, late southwesterly change on Friday will again test firefighters weary after more than two weeks of toil in the face of Australia's worst bushfire disaster.
A further 150 firefighters from NSW, Western Australia and New Zealand will bolster the thousands already on the ground as horror conditions return on Thursday and Friday, Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Peter Billing said.
'This latest spike in fire activity and risk will be quite a test,' he told AAP.
'It will be a major achievement, a major success, if we can hold the fires we have currently got (through Friday).'
There will be little relief from the change, which will be strong, dry and gusty, Mr Billing said.
'There will still be very high fire danger in the north with the change. It will be cooler in the south but there will be no rain and lightning could start new fires,' he said.
'We have got to get the edges of the fires we already have as cool as possible so they will not flare up when the temperature goes up.'
Bulldozers worked through the night to bolster containment lines around the Upwey fire, with more backburning to begin later today, while up to 400 firefighters worked to black out the edges of the Daylesford fire.
In addition, major work continued overnight in the Upper Yarra Valley to protect towns and water catchments ahead of the hot weather.
Backburning also continues at Big River and Jamieson, near Lake Eildon.
Although seven fires remain out of control, none is posing any threat to private property, Mr Billing said.
The two sectors of the East Kilmore-Murrindindi Complex have together burned out more than 236,000ha.
The Bunyip Ridge fire in west Gippsland has blackened 26,000ha, and a blaze sparked on Monday at Won Wron, near Yarram, has burned 1,300ha.
A 22,000ha fire in inaccessible country in the Wilsons Promontory National Park will burn uncontrolled, Mr Billing said.
'We won't stop that until it rains,' he said.
The Tidal River settlement inside the park is safe, he said.