Bushfires grip Victoria and South Australia

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/lives-and-homes-threatened-by-fires-in-two-states

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Firefighters in South Australia and Victoria are battling blazes in “horrendous” conditions, with many emergency-level outbreaks threatening lives and homes.

A total fire ban has been put in place in Victoria where about 600 firefighters with 200 trucks and multiple aircraft have been battling fires in the Gippsland area in the most severe threat since 2009’s Black Saturday.

With four emergency warnings in the state, residents under threat from three of fires have been told it is too late to leave as out-of-control fires burn towards them.

On Sunday morning fire authorities issued an emergency warning for Hiawatha, Jack River, Madalya and Staceys Bridge where it is too late for residents to leave. The same warning applies to residents of Maiden Gully.

People near Buchan have been told to get out now as an out-of-control fire moves from Timbarra and Gil Groggin towards Buchan and surrounds, but authorities said it was no longer safe for residents of Goongerah to leave.

“We’re certainly putting as much resources as we can on to those fires,” the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) Tony Bearzatto told ABC News.

Bearzatto said anyone in the path of the fire who stayedat home must be prepared and “be in a position to defend your property”.

“Don’t just close the blinds and turn a blind eye to what’s happening outside,” he said, advising people to tune in to local radio and check the fire authority websites.

In South Australia’s Flinders Range firefighters have been working to control an emergency-level grass fire for the 26th consecutive day. The Bangor fire poses a danger to lives and homes, the Country Fire Service (CFS) has warned.

“There was a report in the early hours of the morning of a quite substantial flare-up deep in the firegrounds where we could not get crews in,” Brenton Eden from the CFS told ABC News on Sunday.

He said it may have been caused by a haystack or building going up in flames but they would not know for sure until fire crews could get into the area.

“To be perfectly honest the fire behaviour yesterday was as bad as we have seen in the last 25 days,” Eden said.

“History would show that if it’s taken us that long to bring this fire under control it will be a considerable time before we can again bring it under control.”

The threat posed by a fire at Crafers West in the Adelaide Hills has reduced.

A total fire ban is in place for the Flinders region and north-east and north-west pastoral regions.

Southern areas of New South Wales are also on high alert; crews and aircraft are ready to respond. A fire ban applies to nine regions in the central and south-east. More than 40 fires are burning in the state but none are above the lowest “alert” level.

Rural Fire Service spokesman Matt Sun told AAP that some crews had been deployed across the border.

“If they need a hand, they pick up the phone, just the same way that when we needed help in October we picked up the phone,” Sun said.