Bushfires: Just 2km separates inferno in making

Firefighters say massive fires burning either side of the NSW-Victorian border and others in East Gippsland are likely to join up.

Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp. Picture: Getty Images

Firefighters say massive fires burning either side of the NSW-Victorian border and others burning in East Gippsland are likely to join up, forming “mega-blazes” when hot weather and winds from the north take hold later this week.

Cooler weather has brought temporary relief for exhausted firefighters in NSW, Victoria and South Australia, but conditions are expected to deteriorate again.

Hundreds of hectares of fires burning around Corryong, in Victoria­’s northeast, are less than 2km from joining hundreds that are burning in the Snowy Mountains in NSW.

Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said a complex of fires burning around the East Gippsland community of Cobungra, west of Omeo, also had the potentia­l to join up with the fires north of Bairnsdale.

Around seven million hectares have been burnt across Australia this fire season, with the national death toll at 24. NSW police said late yesterday that two men who had been missing on the south coast had been found, with no more reports of anyone missing.

In NSW, 672 houses have been destroyed since New Year’s Eve, with a total of 1588 confirmed ­destroyed so far this fire season.

Firefighters are using the cooler weather to strengthen containment lines around 60 uncon­trolled blazes in NSW, as 14 fires continued to burn in Victoria.

Mr Crisp said the number of fires in Victoria had reduced only because some had joined together.

“It is warming up at the moment­ and on Thursday and Friday we will have a spike day,” he said. “We will start to see forecast northerly winds on Thursday night into Friday, hotter temperatures on Friday.”

Albury-Wodonga, on the NSW-Victorian Upper Murray border, is forecast to reach 41C on Friday, with 39C forecast for Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.

Visitin­g Bairnsdale, Mr Crisp said work to reopen roads was progressing well on the Great Alpine Road, the Gelantipy Road and the Princes Highway, with access possible for some previously isolated communities. Three communities remained­ cut off, and many others had only bush track and emergency vehicle access.

Mr Crisp said HMAS Choules was again off the coast of Mallacoota preparing to evacuate people, with about 200 of the 342 people left in the town who wish to leave set to sail on the ship to the HMAS Cerberus naval base, near Crib Point on the Mornington Peninsula. The rest will be evacuated by air.

The NSW Department of Prim­ary Industries said the death toll for stock in the state could reach 20,000.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrew­s, who grew up on a cattle property at Londrigan in Victoria’s northeast, paid tribute to farmers who had lost stock in his state. “Those who are having to go through that incredibly painful process of having to put down stock … as someone who grew up in regional Victoria, I could only think how challenging it would be for my family to have to destroy stock,” said Mr Andrews.

“My thoughts are with every farmer and their families who are right now going through that process. That’s heartbreaking.”

In South Australia, a damage assessment on Kangaroo Island has revealed 56 homes destroyed by bushfire, with authorities fearful increasing temperatures could spark flare-ups.

Ten more buildings sustained major damage.

Additional reporting: David Ross, AAP