Firefighters battle to contain Sydney inferno

By Grant Holloway
CNN

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Firefighters in Sydney are concentrating efforts late Wednesday on stopping blazes entering the Lane Cove National Park in the city's inner north west as gusty winds and high temperatures push fires ever closer to the city center.

Now in its tenth day of bush fire crisis, firemen are focusing on protecting residential property in the leafy northern suburbs and the city's western fringes rather than attempting to put the fires out.

With more than half a million hectares (1.24 million acres) of bush destroyed and a live fire front now spreading across 1,300 kilometers (807 miles), the fires are the most prolonged and destructive in Australia since the Ash Wednesday conflagration of 1983 that claimed 72 lives.

So far, a sustained campaign of helicopter water bombing and work by volunteer workers on the ground have managed to prevent further property damage and any loss of life, but the 600 hectare Lane Cove Park remains a major concern.

The bushland reserve is only 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the north-west of the central business district and is bordered by more than 2,000 residential properties.

VIDEO Some 15,000 firefighters are battling the bushfires threatening residential areas of Sydney. Channel 7's Morgan Ogg reports (January 1) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   GALLERY Fighting the flames    MORE STORIES • Australian fires fuel economic loss  • Australia's erratic summer     CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

The area also adjoins Sydney's "Silicon Valley" with many large technology-focused companies having major commercial premises in the district.

Sydney, a city of 4 million people, is the commercial capital of Australia.

The city prides itself on its pleasant environment, with extensive bushlands and parks close to the center of town, particularly on the northern side of the harbor where the fires now rage.

The fire threatening Lane Cove began on New Year's Day in the dense 400-hectare (988 acres) Pennant Hills Park bush reserve. It is strongly suspected to have been deliberately lit.

Meanwhile, more than 60 fires are still burning in and around Sydney and across New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

Many of those fires have broken the containment lines set up over the weekend and are burning out of control.

Fire authorities are considering calling up more fire fighters from other Australian States to supplement the thousands of volunteers who have been battling the relentless blazes since Christmas Eve.

Weather conditions in Sydney have been the driest in recorded history, and weather forecasters are not predicting any relief from the onslaught until the weekend at the earliest.

Temperatures on Wednesday have topped 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) and westerly winds have gusted at up to 70 kilometers per hours (40 miles per hour) for most of the day.

Australia's dry summers and vast tracts of combustible eucalyptus forest make bush fires a frequent event, but the expansion of city suburbs into native bush areas over the past few decades has increased the damaging impact of the infernos.

The federal government is now considering purchasing or leasing up to three Erikson Air-Crane Helitanker helicopter water bombers to combat future bush fires.

Just one of the giant helicopters, which can carry a payload of 9,000 liters of water, has been extremely effective in property protection over the last 10 days in Sydney.

The aircraft has been lent to New South Wales by the Victorian state government, which in turn is leasing the helicopter from Canadian fire authorities.

Many of the latest Sydney fires are suspected to be the work of arsonists, including three new blazes in the far west of Sydney suspected of being lit Wednesday.

Police have set up a task force to investigate the arson claims and so far have arrested 21 people in relation to the fires.

Of these, 14 are juveniles, 6 are adults and one is a child under 9 years of age.

The premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, has called for tough penalties for those found guilty of arson, including any juvenile offenders.

The maximum penalty for arson offenses in Australia is 14 years imprisonment.