00:00Five watch and acts in place right now, one for that little desert national park that
00:05was burning much earlier in the week.
00:07But really the focus of today is on that Grampians, particularly on that western side of the Grampians
00:12where there are four watch and acts in place, three in the south and one in the northern
00:16part.
00:17Now, fortunately there was an emergency, emergency warning yesterday, but due to unfavorable
00:23conditions overnight, that was downgraded to a watch and act early, early this morning.
00:28The fire authorities noticed cooler temperatures and the winds had died down, so that allowed
00:34them to jump into, conduct more backburning essentially, and has temporarily for now at
00:41least slowed the spread of the fire.
00:43But as you said, they are still burning out of control.
00:46And Gillian, what else are fire crews doing ahead of that hot weather which is on the
00:50way?
00:51Yeah, so we're expecting high temperatures next week and a wind change.
00:59So currently there is a cooler southerly wind coming, which is pushing the fire and containing
01:02it in the park.
01:03But next week when that wind shift happens and the fire moves south, that could threaten
01:09local communities.
01:10So firefighters are really planning on basically burning about 9,000 hectares of containment
01:17line to essentially encircle these fires and kind of suffocate them from the outside in
01:23so that they don't have any more ground to burn.
01:25That operation is at full speed.
01:27So we're just peddling to the metal for these crews in coming days, trying to take advantage
01:31of the cooler weather before tomorrow starts to heat up.
01:35And there's been, I mean, fires have been burning there for a long time now.
01:38How are the communities within and also around these firegrounds feeling right now?
01:45Yeah, so we know that there was 77 or 78,000 hectare fire that burned over three weeks
01:53over Christmas and New Year's.
01:56These ones aren't as big, but they don't want it to get that big.
01:58So they're really, I guess, on high alert.
02:03Communities in Cavendish, where I was last night, and also in Hamilton, they're quite
02:07rural communities.
02:08So they're cautious and they're busy.
02:10Their farmers are, you know, bulldozing their paddocks, grading their fields, and really
02:17just bolstering fence lines, trying to get ahead of what might come next week.
02:21We know that in other highly tourist places, like Halls Gap, for example, they're also
02:27suffering because this period, the summer period, is their peak season.
02:31And with all these fires in place, it's making it very difficult for tourism providers to
02:36make their income.
02:38Gillian Ayer in Hamilton, thank you.
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