Sydney, Jan 6 (IANS): Cooler conditions and rain have allowed authorities in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria to contain a major bushfire that has been burning since mid-December.
Victorian authorities on Monday downgraded emergency warnings for the bushfire in the Grampians National Park, about 230 km west of Melbourne, and allowed evacuated residents of nearby towns to return home.
Firefighters were able to contain the fire after temperatures dropped from a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius (C) on Sunday to under 15C on Monday, with the cool change bringing rainfall.
The fire, which was sparked by lightning on December 16, has burned through more than 76,000 hectares of land in the national park and surrounding areas.
Communities in and around the national park were ordered to evacuate in late December due to the threat posed by the fire. Emergency Management Victoria said on Monday that four homes and 40 outbuildings were destroyed by the fire and hundreds of animals were killed, Xinhua news agency reported.
Incident Controller Peter West told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that officially declaring the fire contained was the first step towards reopening areas of the national park to the public.
He said that it could still take weeks for the fire to be extinguished and that small flare-ups are likely in the meantime.
Hundreds of firefighters as well as water-bombing aircraft from across Australia joined the effort to contain the blaze during the several-week period that it was burning out of control.
Earlier on December 22, residents who had evacuated several towns in southeast Australia due to a major bushfire were told they could be away from home for several weeks as the fire continued to grow.
Thousands of people in six towns in and around the Grampians National Park, approximately 230 kilometres west of Melbourne in the southeastern state of Victoria, had been ordered to evacuate as the bushfire in the park threatened homes and lives.
The fire had burned more than 34,000 hectares of land, and over 300 firefighters and water bombing aircraft were working to slow its spread.