CFS STILL MONITORS FIRES ACROSS SA
20/01/2014
The CFS has contained a grass fire near Wistow in the Adelaide Hills, after it was reported at around 4.15pm today.
Although this fire near Native Avenue and Frampton Road posed no immediate threat to lives or property it generated a considerable amount of smoke in the Mount Lofty Ranges including Mt Barker.
A concerted effort by CFS volunteers across the state with support from interstate agencies, combined with favourable weather conditions, has now reduced the number of ongoing fires to just one, at Bangor in the Southern Flinders Ranges.
This fire has burnt almost 20,000 hectares and continues to burn in a westerly direction in scrub and steep terrain in the vicinity of The Bluff near the Telowie Gorge Conservation Park.
Meanwhile, other significant fires including Eden Valley and the Riverland are now contained.
More than 26,000 hectares was burnt in an area between Truro and Eden Valley in the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges which involved a fire-fighting effort of 165 CFS volunteers and 28 tankers.
These efforts were supported by other agencies including DEWNR, ForestrySA, SAPOL, MFS, SAAS, Salvation Army, farm fire units and Incident Management Teams from New South Wales and Western Australia.
Fire crews are continuing to work in the area with local residents advised to remain vigilant and to report any sightings of flare-ups.
And the Riverland Complex fire which includes Billiat and Calperum is now listed as "Controlled" although the CFS is continuing to monitor some fire activity west of Renmark and north of Monash.
These fires are posing no threat to lives or property in the area.
The CFS is also advising there may still be smoke in the area and visibility may be reduced. CFS and interstate crews remain on the scene attending to hotspots and creating and strengthening mineral earth breaks although these fires do not currently pose any threat to people in the area.
In the last 24-hours more than 2,600 CFS personnel in 160 appliances have been working at these incidents across the state.
It's estimated that 425,000 hectares of grass and scrubland has burnt across various parts of the State since last Tuesday.
Property losses are still being assessed but there have been 12 homes and 24 sheds destroyed from fires over the same period.
The CFS has been supported by a number of interstate fire agencies including the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS), Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) and the Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA).
- NSW has provided 25 Incident Management Personnel and four strike teams of firefighters with an additional two more strike teams to be deployed over the next two days.
- Victoria has provided two strike teams.
- Western Australia has sent one Incident Management team.
CFS has deployed aircraft to 43 incidents that cumulatively made 831 drops and flew for 544 hours.
Between January 14 and yesterday the CFS website recorded 121 million hits, 2.65 million page views and had one million visits with an average of 500 page-views per minute.
