Mother Nature lends a helping hand

Mother Nature lent a helping hand to local firefighters at Mount Hope last Wednesday with approximately 55mm of rain falling on the fireground which had been burning for nearly a week at Yarra Station.

The rain helped National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) personnel and NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) volunteer firefighters to successfully fight the fire within the National Park.

NSW RFS Far West Team Operational Officer David Moore advised The Cobar Weekly the fire ended up burning out 7,718 hectares, with the majority of that land being within the National Park.

“There has been no repeat calls to the fire after the rain front and the area was inspected the day after the rains by aviation in conjunction with NPWS and RFS personnel,” Mr Moore said.

The Far West Team has continued to be busy with six callouts in the Cobar area in the past week. (Three fires were in the vicinity of the Old Res and are being investigated by police.)

The first incident took place last Wednesday within the vicinity of the boundary trails just north of the Old Res.

The Cobar Headquarters brigade responded to the fire following a report just after 2.30pm. It took almost an hour and a half to extinguish the grass fire which covered an area of approximately 100m x 30m.

A mixture of grass and trees were burnt.

Cobar Headquarters brigade responded to a report of smoke in the vicinity of the Old Res at around 4.45pm on Saturday.

Upon arrival they found an area similar to the fire on Wednesday (100m x 30m) which was burning through grasslands.

A third fire in the vicinity of the Old Res was reported just before 10.30am on Sunday.

“We engaged with both Cobar Headquarters and also Louth Road brigades “slip on” appliances for our firefighting operations,” Mr Moore said.

“This fire was due north of the Old Res along the Devils Rock trails. The perimeter of the fire was around 900m to 1,000m and was a mixture of a grass and scrub fire.”

A suspected lightning strike is believed to have started a fire in Yathong National Park south of Cobar last Wednesday.

Mr Moore said due to the rain in the area the previous day, access to the site was difficult however NPWS were able to reach the fire on Friday. Approximately 121 hectares was burnt before they could control and put the fire out.

Two fires south of Nymagee last Thursday were also believed to have been started by lightning activity in the area.

Mr Moore said the two fires on private property were reported at 4pm.

They burnt through approximately 393ha before being contained by crews from the Nymagee and Eremeran rural brigades along with private operators and heavy plant supplied by a local contractor.

These fires burnt through a mix of scrub and grassland in terrain that made it difficult for the local crews to access.