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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 JANUARY 2020 12 NEWS Australia bushfires COOLER temperatures and patches of rain have assisted fire crews battling bushfires, which have ravaged the coast and parts of the NSW high country. Favourable conditions in the ACT al- so helped local crews control the small Hospital Hill fire in Namadgi National Park. The fire flared on Tuesday, but was quickly contained by aerial and ground crews. Fire crews will continue to monitor the fire in coming days. Defence is also now on stand-by to help with the fires burning to the southwest of the ACT. Major General Jake Ellwood said the NSW defence taskforce had told ACT emergency services on Tuesday that it was ready to "provide whatever sup- port they may require in due course". In NSW, the massive Currowan fire, which has burned through more than 300,000 hectares between Batemans Bay and Nowra, was being controlled on Tuesday night, according to the Rural Fire Service. The Badja Forest Road fire, inland from Bermagui and Narooma, and the Border Fire, near Eden, continue to burn out of control, although both have been downgraded to advice level. In the high country, authorities are on high alert amid fears two large out- of-control blazes could merge, creat- ing a fire extending from the Victorian border up through Kosciuszko Na- tional Park. Friday is set to bring another wave of potentially dangerous bushfire condi- tions to the Snowy Mountains, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting warm temperatures and northwesterly winds to pass through the region. Temperatures are set to spike across bushfire-devastated swathes of south- east NSW and Victoria on Friday, as wind gusts sweeping through after dark bring "problematic" conditions for firefighters. Milder weather has given fire crews a reprieve after soaring temperatures and gusty winds fanned flames that destroyed homes and bushland on the NSW South Coast, the Southern High- lands and the Snowy Mountains on the weekend. But hotter temperatures are expected to return on Friday. Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Brittain said cooler weather would re- main for the next few days before climb- ing above 30 degrees across fire zones in south-east NSW and eastern Victoria. The mercury is expected to soar past 40 degrees in parts of inland NSW to- wards the end of the week, while tem- peratures in western Sydney are ex- pected to also reach the mid-30s. "We're going to see a spike in heat by Friday," Brittain said. "A trough will be affecting eastern parts of Western Australia, across South Australia and western parts of Victoria on Thursday, before mov- ing into eastern parts of Victoria and NSW on Friday. "A cool change is due to arrive Fri- day morning for South Australia and western Victoria. For eastern Victoria it should arrive late Friday afternoon, and into the evening for the south-east of NSW." Brittain said those conditions were similar - although not as severe - to Saturday, when fire zones baked under soaring day-time temperatures before the winds picked up after dark. "It's particularly problematic for fire- fighters," Brittain said. Wind gusts of up to 80 km/h are forecast for the NSW South Coast and eastern Victoria. Bureau of Meteorology senior fore- caster Rosemary Barr said stormy con- ditions across large swathes of NSW would linger until Thursday, before the next burst of higher fire danger conditions on Friday. But she said temperatures that hov- ered around the low-to-mid 30s, cou- pled with high humidity levels, meant the "really elevated fire dangers won't really make their way through" to coastal NSW. "The east looks at this stage to have lower temperatures than we will see in western NSW." Barr said recent high fire danger con- ditions across NSW were driven by a powerful combination of hot tempera- tures, very dry air and windy weather. "In the east on Friday we will have windy conditions, but the heat won't be quite as dramatic, we won't be see- ing those high 30s, lower 40s tempera- tures. "And persistent easterly winds are bringing maritime air, so we'll con- tinue to see really moist conditions." NSW Rural Fire Service community safety officer Marty Webster said on Monday that rain that had fallen in the south-east NSW had allowed firefight- ers to get on the "front foot". "We are not out of the woods yet, but conditions have eased over all the fire Rising heat, gusty winds to worsen bushfire conditions