Firefighters confident of controlling blaze assisted by weather

A large amount of the fire activity on Saturday was in the north west, where backburning operations had contributed to the size of the fire.

In addition to water bombing the area, firefighters were using bulldozers and heavy plant machinery to further strengthen containment lines.

Emergency Services Agency incident controller Rohan Scott said firefighters had been experiencing milder weather conditions on the fireground than in Canberra on Saturday.

“The weather conditions we’re experiencing in town, we’re not actually getting out at the fireground, which has been fantastic for us,” Mr Scott said.

“Temperatures have been lower, the relative humidity has been slightly higher and the winds we’ve been experiencing in town haven’t been as strong on the fireground.

“It’s in a bit of a valley there, protected by a lot of the winds.”

“I’m not confident to say it’s under control, having said that we have got containment lines around the majority of the fire,” Mr Scott said.

“By [Sunday] morning I’d say we will have a pretty good containment line around the fire.

“The conditions overnight are going to be very advantageous for us.”

Ten crews remained at the site on Saturday night along with heavy plant machinery. The six aircraft which had been operating on Saturday will take to the air at first light on Sunday.

In addition to water bombing the aircraft completed infrared and FLIR filming, which is a type of heat-seeking photography.

Mr Scott said there would be smoke rising from the fire over the coming days which could be blown into Canberra.

“At no point at the moment do we see that any houses will come under threat or the need to evacuate or up the rating of the fire,” he said.

“I don’t want to put a timeframe on it but we will have crews there for many days to come, because of the terrain and the type of fuel burning there.

“Once we declare it contained there will be a lot of rehabilitation, mopping up and blacking out to be done until we are 100 per cent comfortable to say it is extinguished.”

The temperature on Sunday is forecast to reach 29 degrees with west to northwesterly winds expected to reach 20 to 30 kilometres per hour.

Bureau of Meterology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse said winds in Canberra would pick up slightly on Sunday morning after easing off on Saturday night.

A front moving through from NSW could prove helpful to firefighters on Monday and Tuesday, she said.

She said while the front would bring the chance of thunderstorm activity, Canberra was unlikely to see the damaging winds and rain that came through on Friday afternoon.

Showers are expected to develop late on Monday with Tuesday expected to be relatively wet and possibly seeing up to 15 millimetres of rain.

Canberrans can stay up to date on the latest weather forecasts at the Bureau of Meterology website and the ESA website has updates on the Pierces Creek fire.

An ACT Emergency Services Agency spokesperson said there had been no evacuations and there was “no immediate danger to the community”.

Smoke is expected to affect Canberra over the coming days. People with asthma, other chronic respiratory or chronic cardiac diseases are warned not to perform vigorous exercise and if they experience difficulty with the situation, consult their GP.

On Friday, more than 1440 homes were door knocked in suburbs from Kambah to Gordon. They were reminded to be prepared for the upcoming bushfire season.

The following road closures remain in place until advised otherwise:

Paddys River Road remains closed from the Cotter Road picnic area (near Brindabella Road) and Tidbinbilla Road remains closed to Corin Dam Road. Kambah Pool Road, from Kambah Pool to Mount Vernon Drive, remains closed.

The following areas will remain closed and inaccessible until advised otherwise:

o Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

o Kambah Pool

o Camp Cottermouth

o Bullen Range Nature Reserve

o Pierces Creek forest

Find regular updates at www.esa.gov.au