NT fire still blazing as Tennant Creek smoke eases
Neve Brissenden |
A Northern Territory mega-blaze four times the size of the ACT is looming as residents in the remote town of Tennant Creek catch their breath.
The major fire was upgraded to a “watch and act” alert level on Sunday night and is burning east of Tennant Creek in an area of more than 9340sq km under “high to extreme” weather conditions.
A smaller fire, disconnected from the Barkly blaze, burning closer to town on Sunday has been mostly put out, residents say.
Barkly Arts Centre worker Kitty Tunnell said the smoke had eased on Monday morning.
“There’s still some smouldering and smoke hanging around but not at all like yesterday,” she told AAP.
Ms Tunnell said the fire looked to be between the Barkly Work Camp, a low-security correctional service, and the town.
“I looked at it and then went down and filled up the car, when I went back up to see it had taken off right to town,” she said.
The blaze was mostly under control on Monday morning, though authorities were doorknocking on Sunday night to warn residents of the looming Barkly fire which had closed parts of the Barkly Highway over the weekend.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Joshua Fischer told ABC Radio the blaze could put homes at risk.
“What we’ve learned with this fire and how it’s behaved over the course of it, there is a real risk in the next 24 hours that this fire may impact upon Tennant Creek,” he said on Monday morning.
Mr Fischer said there had been reports of a distant glow of the fire from Tennant Creek, worrying authorities about the fast-moving blaze.
It’s not known whether the fire has jumped the Gosse River, though authorities on the southeast of the town were doorknocking, with aircraft on stand-by in Tennant Creek in case the fire comes in.
“The last few nights we’ve seen the fire make really impressive runs and I don’t mean impressive in a good way,” Mr Fischer said.
“Impressive runs where it’s travelled 50 to 60 kilometres overnight.”
Motorists told AAP flames from the front could be seen from the Stuart Highway en route to Darwin.
“It is certainly a warning of what is likely to come as we move through the summer period in central Australia,” Mr Fischer said.
AAP
