New bid to block fires

Press, 27 December 1979, Page 4

New bid to block fires

NZPA Sydney Dozens of firemen and an. Army bulldozer battled last evening to cut a tire break: through thick bush in the Blue Mountains, west of i Sydney. i Brigades from Sydney, then Blue Mountains, and the I Colo district dug the break I through the Grose Valley in 1 a bid to block bush fires from! I burning towards the towns of. Blackheath, Medlow Bath, ' and Katoomba. : t ■A spokesman for the Blue; 1 Mountains Bushfire Control It

Centre said the firemen' hoped to plough a 2.5 km ex-: tension to the existing; Brown's Ridge fire break,: which is about 9km long. j A drop in temperatures, a rise in humidity, and falling: off of strong winds in the’ mountains yesterday’ were a; belated Christmas present for! hundreds of men who have] worked for more than a week! to control the fires. Another five brigades worked to contain a blaze to the north of the Grose River, but fire control said the fire was “burning quietly.”

' Elsewhere in the Blue: •Mountains, six brigades pat-; rolled the small townships of (Mount Wilson and Mount Irvine, mopping up the remnants of a big blaze which had threatened the towns ! earlier in the week. | I I Firemen and volunteers : also fought a fire in the Mogo and Mount Manning areas, ] north of the Macdonald River, about 90km north-west] of Sydney. I