By Simon Kirby
October 07, 2007 01:33pm
Article from: AAP
LIGHT RAIN has hampered firefighters' attempts to contain a large fire
raging in a national park on the New South Wales north coast.
About 80 firefighters and eight aircraft were today battling flames that
have scorched through nearly 5,000ha of bushland since last week in
Bundjalung National Park, south of Evans Head.
Rural Fire Service (RFS) spokeswoman Rebel Talbert said last night's
southerly change, which delivered a 10mm sprinkling of rain on the
fire's southern edge, had been a more of a curse than a blessing.
“It means the firefighters can't get their trucks in because it's become
quite boggy,” Ms Talbert said.
“The rain has just hampered backburning operations but hasn't completely
stopped the fire, it's probably set us back a couple of days.”
The fires were not expected to endanger homes in the area.
At Port Stephens, north of Newcastle, the RFS has declared the bushfire
danger to be over.
“The bushfire emergency in that area is over and we're just going to
have crews out there continuing to mop up and black out over the next
couple of days,” Ms Talbert said.
Fire crews were fighting 10 bushfires across NSW, down from 40 before
the weekend, she said.