The Bridge Hill fire began Thursday. Photo: Supplied / FENZ
The winds in the Canterbury high country are already picking up and expected to get to gale force overnight, making the job of battling a massive fire in the Canterbury high country more challenging for firefighters today.
The Bridge Hill blaze, which started on Thursday morning, has burnt through nearly a thousand hectares of land, northwest of Springfield.
The incident controller of the fire, Colin Russell, said the fire has not grown in size in the last two days, and is now contained within its boundary.
He said there are more trying conditions today with northwest winds already up to around 30km/h this morning, and expected to grow through the day and peak overnight.
"The wind is predicted to get up to 90, 120, 150 (km/h) overnight up here, so very, very strong winds predicted for this area, which is a concern for us. The mitigating factor is that after lunch we are also forecast, hopefully, to get significant rain which will be really helpful."
He said there are about 100 people on the ground today, and they are working hard to get the identified hot spots dampened down so the wind does not flare them up, if the forecast rain does not arrive.
Near the Bridge Hill fire, the road is open, but a 30km/h speed limit is in place during the day, with traffic being taken in convoys between Flock Hill and Castle Hill.
"A large number of firefighters, trucks and tankers are still working in the area, with helicopters operating close to the road in places. We want to keep the traffic flowing on the state highway, while at the same time make sure that our crews can operate safely," Russell said.
"From 8am [Sunday] until about 8pm the area will be under traffic management, with single lane access and escorted convoys led by a pilot vehicle. Overnight there will be two-way traffic but a 50km/h speed restriction."
Russell said the strong winds do restrict the way they can respond to the fire, particularly in the bush area, and increase the risks significantly.
"Broken trees, burnt trees are a lot weaker, and the wind just means there is high risk of tree fall in the forest, and we need to put in extra safety measures and look outs in the working area to ensure people's safety."
He said there has so far, been no fire growth outside of the fire boundary since Thursday, and the majority of the fire is now under control.
The teams are continuing to work on some small areas of fire activity within the fire boundary.
Russell said the helicopters had been operating this morning, but had to stop due to the strong winds.
He said if the forecast heavy rain does arrive it will make underfoot conditions difficult, so they will then pull back the ground crew and wait it out.
Russell said that would be the best case scenario for this afternoon.
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