30 New Fires In NSW Over 12-Hour Period; 130 Fires, 2,600 Firefighters, 2.2 Million Hectares Burned

[hatrack]

Thirty new spot fires ignited between Wednesday night and Thursday morning due to lightning strikes, with the next 48 hours looming as pivotal to firefighting efforts due to improved weather conditions.

NSW firefighters are desperately trying to take advantage of easing conditions across the state, but they say they're "in for the long haul". Over at least the next 24 to 48 hours, we've got more favourable conditions across NSW," said RFS spokesman Ben Shepherd. "What that's enabling us to do is get on the front foot, and we are conducting a number of back burns across all fire grounds before we see a return of windy weather."

He said they had made progress at a number of massive sites, notably the Gospers Mountain and Three Mile fires, which had been wreaking havoc in the Hawkesbury and Gosford, respectively. "We have been able to curb those fires' easterly spreads, they've done some really good work up there and that will continue," Mr Shepherd said.

EDIT

On Thursday afternoon, there were 2600 firefighters battling 130 fires. "We're dealing with over 2.2 million hectares of current fire grounds, and just on those there's at least 10- to 12-000 kilometres of perimeter," Mr Shepherd said.

EDIT

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/prime-minister-scott-morrison-announces-boost-for-aerial-firefighting-20191212-p53j8e.html

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. It breaks my heart....

To read that Australia is burning up.

The Hawkesbury region is lovely. Richmond, Windsor, Marsden Park, and surrounding communities are considered suburbs of Sydney.