Rain Hit And Miss With Fires

THE impact of rain on local fire grounds was sporadic with large falls of 60mls falling in areas without fires and only 2 mls over the Carter’s Road fire.

Michael Robinson from Liverpool Range Fire Control said the cooler, humid conditions were helping fire fighting efforts and while the rain was helpful it has also created some obstacles.

“Rain on the fire ground always helps, but it does make back burning a bit more difficult and traversing over wet tracks can be a problem,” said Mr Robinson.

“We are gaining further intel today from the fires with aviation assets making an assessment,” he said.

“The rain has slowed fires down, but the cloud cover and fog in some areas is preventing aviation from flying over the fire grounds,

“The RAFT (Remote Access Fire Teams) were able to go in, but with the terrain the rain can make it dangerous for fire fighters slipping in such rugged terrain and with cloud cover they haven’t been able to get everywhere they need yet, but we are monitoring when that might be able to happen,” he said.

“I just really want to thank our volunteers who are still working hard on these fires and their employers who release them, it really is the wider community that stand behind them and support the volunteers that makes the difference we need, otherwise we would not be able to do what we do,” Michael Robinson said.

Related stories:

• Local Fires Update: Hopes Fire Conditions Are Quelling – January 13, 2020.