Fire threat downgraded in central NSW - ABC Online

Updated January 14, 2013 06:22:20

A large bushfire that has damaged part of the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales has been downgraded from emergency to watch-and-act status.

The fire continues to burn out-of-control in the Warrumbungle National Park, to the west of Coonabarabran.

Laura Ryan from the Rural Fire Service said the threat had eased slightly thanks to a drop in winds overnight.

"That change in weather conditions has helped getting the fire slowed, although it remains a very dangerous fire," she said.

• NSW Rural Fire Service


• Victoria Country Fire Authority


• ACT Emergency Services Agency


• Tasmania Fire Service


• Queensland Fire Service


• ABC Emergency website

Residents in the area, as well as 18 staff from the Siding Spring Observatory, had to be evacuated at the height of the blaze late yesterday.

Two evacuation centres were set up at the Tattersalls Hotel in Baradine and the Coonabarabran Bowling Club.

At least two properties have been destroyed and part of the observatory - the country's largest optical astronomy research facility - was damaged.

Australian National University spokeswoman Jane O'Dwyer says staff are travelling from Canberra to take stock of the fire's impact on the facility.

"We haven't been able to carry out a damage assessment yet so we don't have a full picture," she said.

"What we do know is that all of the staff at the observatory, there were 18 people up there, were safely evacuated to Coonabarabran, and they're all safe."

Map: Warrumbungle National Park fire map

Large parts of New South Wales have been affected by bushfires this week, brought on by searing temperatures and wild winds.

More than 170 fires continue to burn across New South Wales and about 50 of them are uncontained.

Fire fighters in the state's north-west worked through the night to strengthen containment lines around a grass fire that had been threatening homes at Bundabarina, west of Collarenebri.

That fire has now been downgraded to advice status.

Firefighters are also working to control blazes in Victoria and Tasmania, while the threat from fires in Central Australia has eased.

In Tasmania, a Victorian firefighter has died while fighting a bushfire on the Tasman Peninsula, south of Hobart.

The man aged in his 60s was found dead yesterday about three kilometres from a fire edge east of Taranna.

He was one of the Victorian firefighters sent to Hobart to assist in controlling the bushfires that have destroyed about 170 properties.

A report is being prepared for the coroner. The Tasmanian Fire Service and the Premier have expressed their condolences.

Topics: bushfire, fires, disasters-and-accidents, coonabarabran-2357, nsw, australia

First posted January 14, 2013 05:57:15