Friday, January 11 is a day of total ban fire in Victoria and NSW.
THE Riverina is expecting dangerous fire conditions again as heatwave conditions return today.
Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons warned that wide areas of the state would experience high, severe and even extreme fire danger conditions.
They included northern NSW, the Great Dividing Range, the eastern seaboard and the Riverina.
“Fortunately, at this stage, all the indicators are we’re not expecting the sorts of catastrophic conditions that we experienced back on Tuesday,” he said.
NSW firefighters were last night racing to contain problem fires before another explosion of scorching weather.
Making the most of cooler conditions, they got on top of the fires to such an extent yesterday that there were no emergency or “watch and act” alerts in force.
RELATED
MEGA GALLERY: Bushires across Australia
WEATHER: Local forecasts and updates
Of the 120 fires still burning in the state, only 17 are uncontained.
But the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a return to heatwave conditions across large parts of the state today, after a two-day lull.
Mr Fitzsimmons said much work remained to be done last night.
“It is going to be hot,” he said, with temperatures expected to be in the low to mid-40s today, and the mid and high 40s in western areas tomorrow.
The RFS has declared a statewide total fire ban for today.
But firefighters can expect lighter winds, after gusts of more than 70km/h hampered their efforts earlier this week.
So far only one house has been lost in the fires, at Yarrabin in the Cooma-Monaro region, but about 370,000 hectares have been burned and an estimated 10,000 sheep worth $1 million have died.
Three fires are still causing concern.
More than 100 firefighters were working to contain the Deans Gap fire which has burned through 5700 hectares south of Sussex Inlet, in the Shoalhaven.
The Yarrabin fire burning in the Kybeyan Valley has burned 9400 hectares and rural properties were under threat, while at Cobblers Road, west of Yass, a fire is approaching an electricity transmission line.
