Queensland Fire and Emergency Services warns Myall Park fire could last until next month

Fire authorities have warned residents it could take weeks before a giant blaze north of Miles is fully extinguished after an ‘unprecedented’ fire season. Here’s the latest.

Residents are still being advised to avoid the Myall Park area just north of Miles as emergency crews continue to battle the growing blaze.

Queensland Rural Fire Service South West Region manager Superintendent Wayne Waltisbuhl said the fire has grown to cover a 42,000ha area and isn’t expected to be extinguished until the end of the week.

Mr Waltisbuhl said all other fires have been extinguished and the focus is now on containing the Miles fire as investigators continue to probe the suspicious fires near Tara.

Currently there are 88 firefighters, 30 combatant vehicles, 11 aircraft on standby and two helicopters detecting and mapping fires.

Additionally, strike teams from the Northern Region, North Coast, and South East and Brisbane region have joined forces to render assistance.

“Other than some minor bruising it’s been a relatively safe operation,” he said.

“We’ll maintain this posture until March 11.

“We’ve determined March 11 is a period that we think the weather conditions will support us starting to scale down. That’s based on the fact that we don’t get any more outbreaks of fire.”

Wayne Waltisbuhl, Superintendent RFS South Western Region.Monday, January 30, 2023. Picture: Nev Madsen.

He revealed two dwellings and five sheds have been lost to the blaze.

“This event has stretched our local resources obviously and we couldn’t have achieved what we’ve done without the support of other regions around the state,” Superintendent Waltisbuhl said.

“There’s still a fire ban in the Goondiwindi and Western Downs regions and will stay in place until midnight on February 28.

“Conditions are really dry in these areas. These decisions aren’t made lightly, we know that this impacts some people but we need to maintain control of fires in the landscape at this stage.

“A lot of the fires currently have been started accidentally from people welding, slashing, that type of thing.

“We’re not going to stop these kinds of activities in the area, business still needs to continue, farmers still have to do work on their property.

“We ask that if you’re doing this type of work, have a spotter nearby to watch for sparks that might come off your work so we can extinguish them really quickly. Have some sort of extinguishing method whether it’s a fire extinguisher or a pump and a tank and a hose.”

Superintendent Waltisbuhl said typically the fire season ended in January and it was very “unusual and unprecedented” to last until March.

At this stage preliminary investigations have outlined a probable cause for the fire north of Miles; however, cannot be revealed until investigations have concluded.