Fire officials today told Sydney residents that the battle against raging bushfires was far from over and said extreme weather conditions were expected to fuel the blazes.
Relatively mild and calm weather conditions yesterday helped fire fighters contain some of the 100 bushfires burning across New South Wales state. Many of the fires have burned out of control since Christmas Day.
But outbreaks in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney and fires 15 km (10 miles) to the south and in the Spencer district around 40 km (25 miles) to the north were of major concern.
State officials warned the respite would likely only be temporary, with temperatures tomorrow forecast to rise as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), coupled with strong southerly and westerly winds.
"So far as the overall fire situation is concerned it's a mixed bag of good news and some not quite so good news," Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg told a news conference.
"Much containment has been achieved over the past 36 hours ... tenuous containment, and those containment lines will be severely tested if temperatures go up, if the humidity comes down and if wind velocities increase."
The break in the harsh summer weather helped more than 5,000 weary firefighters establish firebreaks and backburning operations to starve the fires of fuel.
The bushfires wrecked Christmas celebrations across New South Wales in the worst outbreak since 1994 when four people died.
The fires, nearly half of which have been blamed on arson, have destroyed at least 150 homes but there have been no reports of death or serious injury. The fire services estimate that so far over 11,000 homes have been saved from the flames.
Officials estimated that fires were burning unchecked on fronts totalling about 600 km and one massive 30 km fire, which has been burning out of control for the past week, was only a few kilometres from towns in the Blue Mountains national park area.
Officials called on the public to conserve water.
State Fire Brigade spokesman Ian Krimmer asked residents in affected areas to alert fire crews if they had swimming pools in their gardens so that they could be drained of water.
A special Sky Crane helicopter, which carries 9,000 litres (1,980 gallons) of water, has been shipped to Sydney to fight the fires. Another 500 fire fighting personnel and 100 vehicles from other states will arrive over the weekend.
Police suspect that up to 40 of the more than 100 fires ravaging the state were started deliberately and have set up a special task force to investigate arson.
The fires have blackened tens of thousands of hectares, killed thousands of sheep and cut road and rail links along with power supplies to about 12,000 properties. Dozens of firefighters have been treated for smoke inhalation.
The Insurance Disaster Response Organisation said more than 1,000 claims for property damage have been received with insurance costs now estimated at Aus$50 million (IR£25 million approx.) compared with Aus$56 million in 1994.