Gilgandra grassfire contained on third day by NSW RFS and National Parks team

Dry, hot weather coupled with wet soil conditions posed challenges for crews from the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

A team of two rotary helicopters, one fixed-wing airplane, and 25 team members were at work to douse the fire on Monday. The following day, a team of 16 along with one helicopter were able to put an end to the burning.

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Inspector Mark Pickford from the NSW RFS Orana team said the fire has been contained and the crew was now focusing on stomping out any red areas.

"They're putting out any embers that are still burning, any logs and little bits and pieces from the containment line into the centre of the fire ground," he said.

"They're still using one rotary aircraft to dump water to put out any sleepers."

Water was dumped to save any trees found still alive. Inspector Pickford said the area is now considered safe.

"We're pretty comfortable with it at this stage, no threats. Today (Tuesday), we just want to make sure it's all out, given this hot weather that's been forecast this week," he said.

According to the inspector, the fire lasted this long owing to environmental issues.

Due to the fire starting in bushland, a lot of water and work was required to stop flaming trees. Moreover, the ground in the area was still very wet from previous rains which made it easy for bulldozers and graders to get bogged.

"We had to resort to using crew on the ground which is time-consuming hard work, with hand tools and blowers. Someone said the other day, 'The ground's too wet to hold heavy plant and the grass is too dry to hold a fire with'," Inspector Pickford said.

Due to majority of the fire affecting private property, the event has damaged grazing land, resulted in loss of grass feed, and possibly some fencing. However, no stock losses have been reported.

Another fire had begun at Narromine on Monday afternoon, but NSW RFS have extinguished it along with other little fires in the region.

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