Jeremy Smith, Tasmania’s commissioner for fire and emergency services, said containing the blazes would be a “long hard slog” requiring crews to go “metre-by-metre across the fire ground … These fires will take a long time to control, and ensure that they are extinguished”.
Fires that have razed 90,000 hectares of remote Tasmanian wilderness, including world-heritage listed areas and parts of the famous Overland walking track, could burn for weeks as firefighters battle to contain blazes in remote terrain.
The fires follow similar outbreaks in the state’s wilderness area over the past decade as lightning strikes combined with heat and wind to create hazardous conditions.
With the weekend expected to bring wind gusts of up to 80kmh, authorities said it would take “many days, if not weeks” to bring them under control.
Scientists say damage from fires caused by lightning strikes has increased dramatically since the start of the millennium, and is expected to continue to worsen as summers became hotter and drier.
