Tuesday, Sep 19, 2006 at 09:56
Vic firefighters battle Mallee blaze
Firefighters backed by
water bombing aircraft are battling to contain a blaze which is likely to threaten farms in Victoria's remote Mallee country late today.
The fire, which began as a fuel reduction burn, has ripped through about 3,000 hectares of Mallee scrub in the
Murray-Sunset National Park at Berrook East, north of
Murrayville, 510km north-west of
Melbourne.
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Graeme Davis said today the blaze was likely to affect privately-owned wheat farms later today.
"The fire is likely to spread because we are expecting extreme fire weather before a change later today," Mr Davis told AAP.
"We'll have a very strong northerly wind and relatively low humidity, certainly for this time of year.
"The westerly change will be blustery. We've had some fuel reduction burns in the area so we are trying to manage the fire into those areas."
Three fire-bombing aircraft and two helicopters will support 65 DSE firefighters on the ground, Mr Davis said.
"There's no private property under threat at this stage, but it is likely the fire will possibly spot on to private property later in the day.
"It's wheat country and it's all green crops at this stage, so it's unlikely to cause significant damage. There are no towns or settlements in the area, it's all broad-acre farms.
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