VIC: Blaze biggest since Ash Wednesday, say firefighters

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-1999
VIC: Blaze biggest since Ash Wednesday, say firefighters

MELBOURNE, Feb 1 AAP - Firefighters are bracing themselves for a potentially dangerous wind
change on a huge fire straddling the South-Australian border, described as the biggest blaze
in the region since the infamous Ash Wednesday fires.

Firefighters fear the wind could tomorrow switch to a northerly, which would push the fire
back into SA, expanding its vast front.

Already, the fire has burned out 100,000 hectares of bushland on a 60km front.

Ninety per cent of the blaze is on the SA side of the border.

It is burning through sand dune country covered by eucalypt and mallee woodland in the
Ngarkat Conservation Park in SA and the Big Desert Wilderness Area in Victoria.

Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment state fire controller Max Coulter
said firefighters had installed extensive control lines on the Victorian side of the fire late
yesterday.

"The wind is doing an anti-clockwise shift," Mr Coulter said. "It may turn into a northerly
to push the fire back to South Australia.

"It gives it an opportunity to make it run on a new front."

About 200 firefighters have been battling the blaze on the Victorian side alone, with 10
water bombing aircraft also used.

The fire started on Wednesday evening, with lightening the likely cause.

Mr Coulter sid infra-red equipment had been valuable in probing through thick smoke to hot
spots in the blaze.

"It is probably the largest fire in the south of the state since Ash Wednesday," he said.

He said no private property was under immediate threat.

The February 16, 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires burnt out vast portions of Victoria and SA,
killing a total of 75 people in those states.

AAP gfr/was/br

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES VIC DAYLEAD

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