Dirranbandi residents allowed to return home after dangerous bushfire

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A fast-moving bushfire near Dirranbandi in southwest Queensland has been brought under control. Residents were forced to flee on Tuesday night but were allowed to return to their homes yesterday evening.

Transcript

00:00The situation here in the small town of Dirambandi in southwest Queensland is certainly a lot

00:07better than it was just 24 hours ago.

00:09The bushfire that had been raging in this region is now under control.

00:13Fire crews had been battling the bushfire for the past two days.

00:18Water-bombing aircraft had been brought in and some of the farmers who live in the area

00:21who had stayed behind to help defend their properties had got heavy machinery and cut

00:26some large fire breaks in the outskirts of town which really helped.

00:31The main concern last night from authorities was that the fire may flare up again.

00:36There are still a lot of hot spots.

00:38The weather is extremely hot, windy and they were worried that some embers may jump containment

00:43lines spread and the fire could flare up again.

00:46Thankfully though that didn't happen.

00:48The fire was brought under control late yesterday afternoon and the evacuation order that had

00:53been in place was lifted.

00:55Police came door to door two nights ago and told most of the 600 residents of the town

01:00to leave.

01:01The main reason for that was precautionary because the town had lost power.

01:05As you can see behind me, the fire had brought down some power lines.

01:09That had cut telecommunication so there was no phone service and the main road in and

01:13out of town was cut.

01:15For that reason, authorities thought it was simply too risky to allow people to stay so

01:19they had evacuated everyone to the neighbouring town of St George which is about 80km north

01:25of here.

01:26People had stayed overnight there in an evacuation centre that had been set up in the cultural

01:31centre.

01:32Thankfully though, the situation here now is under control.

01:35Most people did return home last night.

01:37Power and phone services have been restored.

01:39The road has reopened and fingers crossed the worst is behind us.

01:44The weather though today is still forecast to be extremely hot so authorities will be

01:48monitoring the situation.

01:50The temperatures are expected to rise into the mid 40s today and it is going to be very

01:54windy but thankfully, looking at the forecast, there is a few scattered showers on the radar.

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