All night effort to halt bushfires


Article from: AAP
February 17, 2008 05:14am

FIREFIGHTERS have worked through the night on bushfires in Western Australia's Goldfields region that have closed the Great Eastern Highway.
The fires - three south of the highway and one north of the highway, 50 km west of Coolgardie -- were caused by lightning strikes yesterday, the WA Department of Environment and Conservation said.
Department crews worked through the night using heavy earth-moving machines to put in containment lines around a fire burning a couple of kilometres south of the highway that had claimed 1000ha of the park.
Extra fire crews from the southwest and wheatbelt have been brought to the area to assist local firefighters.
An aerial surveillance team is being sent to the area today to monitor the fires.
"The emphasis today will be on containing and holding the fire south of the highway, then containing another one that is 10km north of the highway near the No 8 (Dedari) pump station on the Goldfields pipeline,'' said the department's Goldfields regional manager, Ian Kealley.
The highway closure will be reassessed later today.