RAINFALL has helped firefighters with bushfires that have raged for nearly two weeks.
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The Macleay River fire in the Oxley Rivers National Park was now “contained”, NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Namoi/ Gwydir team spokesman Inspector Brett Loughlin said yesterday.
He said a lot of trees had fallen on Raspberry Rd, which had been closed, but crews were working to clear the trees there.
New England RFS spokesman Inspector Tim Butcher said crews were also working to clear trees on Heydon’s Fire Trail.
Six people were working at the sites, along with a bulldozer and chainsaws, he said.
“They’re assessing all the trees along the road,” Inspector Butcher said.
He said the fire was at “patrol” status.
“The fire’s reached containment lines (and is) still burning internally,” he said.
Some “hotspots”, such as trees and stumps, were still burning, he said.
Cedar Creek, at the south side of the fire, was experiencing internal burning “but obviously we’ve got to keep a close eye on it”.
Today ground crews will be patrolling the area (which has burnt out 60,000 hectares) and assessing dangerous trees, and a helicopter with an air observer using a forward-looking infra-red camera will monitor any hotspots.
“We can identify and map where exactly the hotspots are in the fire,” Inspector Butcher said.
The Ramah fire, in the basin nature reserve near Tingha, was now out, which he described as a “big win”, because if it had escaped to the west it would have gone into extremely steep, difficult terrain. The Austin fire, about 10km away from the Ramah fire, was declared out last Friday.
Inspector Steve Prior of Tamworth RFS said the Lowry fire (between Manilla and Kingstown) was at patrol status as of Sunday, and the RFS was hoping to declare it out by this afternoon.
As far as he was aware, the Warrabah fire, being monitored and administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the same area, was contained.
“The feedback I heard this morning was that it was looking good,” Inspector Prior said.