Fire relief before heatwave returns

Firefighters have one eye on the flames and one on the weather forecasts as they brace for a return of heatwave conditions across eastern Australia.
Cooler weather on Thursday eased the plight of communities in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW after scenes of havoc earlier this week.
But temperatures were forecast to soar back into the 40s on Friday and the weekend, heightening the fire danger as it spreads north into Queensland.
Total fire bans have been declared across all of Victoria, NSW and the ACT for Friday.
The weather bureau predicted temperatures in the mid-40s in some parts of NSW on Friday, with even higher temperatures forecast for Saturday.
'The good news is that the wind is not expected to be as strong as it was,' said senior meteorologist Julie Evans, to the relief of firefighters who earlier this week battled flames fanned by winds of over 70km/h, gusting to 100km/h in some places.
Thousands of firefighters in NSW battled to contain fires ahead of the renewed threat on Friday.
Only 17 of the state's 120 fires still alight remained uncontained, with no emergency alerts current and no 'watch and act' alerts, the next phase down the scale of danger.
The fires have burnt around 370,000 hectares but only one home was lost, at Yarrabin in the Cooma-Monaro region.
Three fires still causing concern in southern regions of the state were in the Kybeyan Valley, 20km from Cooma, at Dean's Gap near Sussex Inlet and at Cobblers Road, west of Yass.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said he was not expecting the 'catastrophic' conditions experienced on Tuesday but wide areas of NSW would experience high, severe and even extreme fire danger conditions.
That included NSW's north down through some of the Great Dividing Range, the eastern seaboard and into the Riverina.
In Victoria, two major blazes were being controlled ahead of temperatures tipped to hit 42C in northern parts of the state.
In the southwest of the state, fire crews prepared containment lines for the 6500-hectare fire at Kentbruck, near Portland, and reduced fuel.
'We are as confident as you can be,' said Country Fire Authority operations officer David Harris, 'but we are experiencing severe fire danger tomorrow and having such a large fire already in the landscape, there is always the potential for it to escape.'
Crews established a good perimeter around the edge of the 1300ha Chepstowe/Carngham fire, which has destroyed nine homes, and were 'very confident' of holding it on Friday.
In Tasmania, where the fires have destroyed 130 properties and burnt 110,000 hectares since last Thursday, most of the remaining 30 fires were downgraded.
The major concern was a 22,800ha fire between Forcett and the Tasman Peninsula in the state's southwest.
Queensland fire crews were still working to contain bushfires on Bribie Island, north of Brisbane, on Thursday.
Properties were not under threat, but a large-scale backburn was sending smoke across the area and people with respiratory problems were told to stay indoors.

source  skynews.com.au