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‘This has been a good firefighting day for us, in terms of protecting our cultural assets and critical infrastructure,’ say authorities
Firefighters in Australia have managed to keep uncontrolled blazes from reaching suburban areas of the country’s capital city, Canberra, using airdrops of fire retardant.
Authorities said three drops of the pink retardant helped create a 2.5 kilometer (1.55 mile)-long line of defense along the bottom of a mountain south of Canberra.
The defense line enabled fire crews to save all structures in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) so far, with further drops planned for Sunday, said ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) Commissioner Georgeina Whelan on Saturday evening.
“This has been a good firefighting day for us, in terms of protecting our cultural assets and critical infrastructure,” she said.
“Our intent tonight is to undertake backburning operations to consolidate those containment lines.”
Ms. Whelan added crews were able to save a communications tower on Mount Clear thanks to preparatory work, calling it “a very important win for us today in order to be able to maintain our trunk communications going”.
The New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service (RFS) warned around midnight there were still 62 bush and grass fires burning in the state, with 25 still needing to be contained.
“More than 2,000 firefighters remain in the field,” said the service. “Crews will work overnight to slow the spread of fire and protect homes where possible.”
Crazy to see the #CanberraFires moving closer to the city on my flight back last night from Melbourne. Hope everyone stays safe during these hard times. pic.twitter.com/LVsMp3YhxY
— Clark Donovan (@ClarkJHDonovan) February 1, 2020
Earlier on Saturday, there were fears the blazes could reach suburbs in the south of Canberra, whose residents braced for firey conditions similar to those in 2003.
Around 500 homes were destroyed and four people killed in bushfires that raged through Canberra in 2003.
A state of emergency will remain in place in the ACT until Sunday as heatwave conditions are expected to continue throughout the weekend.
High temperatures exceeding 40C and strong winds could still lead to fire spreading quickly and authorities warned residents to “remain alert, not alarmed”.
About 55,000 hectares (approximately 135,907 acres) in Orroral Valley have burnt away, where the blazes started due to a military helicopter that was delivering support for bushfire operations.
The helicopter crew was conducting aerial reconnaissance and ground clearance to enable access to emergency services personnel when heat from the aircraft’s landing light started a grassfire underneath it while it was grounded.
The current fire season has wreaked unprecedented damage since it began in September, killing 33 people and an estimated one billion native animals.
The Australian government has faced criticism for its handling of the bushfire crisis, which experts say was exacerbated by climate change that resulted in extreme heat and prolonged drought.
