NSW: Bad weather fans flames, puts town on alert

AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-2001
NSW: Bad weather fans flames, puts town on alert

SYDNEY, Dec 31 AAP - Fires currently under control risk breaching containment lines
as poor weather moves in, placing at least one NSW town on evacuation alert.

Residents of Hill Top, south-west of Sydney, are on high alert as a nearby fire moves
closer to homes fanned by strong winds.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg said evacuation was a last resort but
containment lines that were in place were extremely tenuous.

"In the absence of good weather, that is snow, the odd bit of hail and seven or eight
inches of rain, these containment lines could most generously be described as tenuous
in the extreme," Mr Koperberg told reporters.

"The bureau have indicated to us that there is little if any doubt about the next 96
hours of continuing dry conditions with moderate to fresh north-westerly winds."

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KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES NSW OUTLOOK

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