‘Terrible conditions’: ACT bushfire burning out of control and approaching Canberra’s south-west
Twitter is littered with photos of the bushfire seen on the hills behind Canberra on Thursday night. Photo: Twitter/AJ Johnston
An out-of-control bushfire in the ACT’s south-west has burned through dozens of hectares, reaching just 8 kilometres away from the nearest suburb on Friday morning.
Authorities upgraded the alert for the blaze at Pierces Creek to “watch and act” at 6am and urged people to enact their fire plans.
By 7am, the fire had burned 54 hectares.
ACT Fire and Rescue’s Commander Paul Flynn said fire crews endured terrible conditions and fast-growing flames overnight.
Smoke from the Pierces Creek blaze continues to tower over Canberra trees. Photo: ABC Canberra/Clarissa Thorpe
He said the dry and warm conditions made work tough for the 27 firefighting crews, with temperatures staying about 25 degrees with less than 30 per cent humidity.
“Which is terrible conditions for overnight firefighting – normally overnight firefighting is good,” he said.
Total Fire Bans are now in force for the Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter and Southern Ranges. Report all unattended fires to Triple Zero (000) and stay up to date by visiting https://t.co/NpNcAUu0rj #NSWRFS pic.twitter.com/PARO1HdMaM
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) November 1, 2018
Commander Flynn hoped conditions would allow three helicopters to monitor the situation within the next hour.
“But we are expecting conditions maybe even too windy for them to operate later on, so we’re going to do as much as we can as early as we can,” he said.
“I’ve got fire and rescue crews, when they get on, to get out there and contact rural lease contacts in the area either by phone or by presence in the area.”
He said about 150 grade three and four students from Miles Franklin Primary School, who have been at the Birrigai Outdoor School at Tidbinbilla, will be evacuated later with buses brought in as early as possible.
The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve would also close for the day.
Emergency Services Agency ACT Commissioner Dominic Lane said the fire started from a burnt-out car and took hold in the neighbouring pine forest.
View of #PiercesCreek fire from top of #RedHill in #Canberra earlier tonight. Check out @ACT_ESA for advice! #CBR #BushandGrassFire pic.twitter.com/Zj0HRFSCKC
— Nathan Warner 🇨🇦🇦🇺🇵🇸 (@nathan_warner) November 1, 2018
He said concerns were growing.
“We could see intense spotting activity which could mean the fires could spread rapidly,” he said.
“We are going to see some strong west to north-westerly winds throughout the day, looking to peek at about 1:00pm this afternoon, potentially gusting to about 60 kilometre per hour winds.”
“Most people in our community know what that means in terms of fire behaviour. So we could see significant fire behaviour – we could see spotting well ahead of this main fire.”
The ESA confirmed a total ban will be in place in the ACT from 9am.
