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Rain has Sydney breathing easier, for now
By Grant Holloway
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Dousing rains have taken the sting out of Sydney's week-long bushfire crisis, but a row over whether enough was done to prevent the fires spreading is starting to heat up. Overnight showers which are persisting into Tuesday have given firefighters the upper hand in the battle to contain the blazes which have destroyed more than 40 homes and burnt more than 120,000 hectares (296,000 acres) of bushland since Wednesday. Firefighters are now concentrating on crucial mopping-up work, and warning that unless this is done new blazes could easily erupt with the return of hot weather and sunshine. For the first time in nine days, the total fire ban which has applied to Australia's most populous state has been lifted. "It has quietened down a fair bit with this rain, but it is still not over yet," NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman John Winter told media Tuesday. "The overnight rain will be absorbed by the dry ground and lessen the intensity of the active fire, but is not enough to extinguish the fires," Winter said. Fire authorities warn that large stumps and underground tree roots can continue to burn even after days of rain then spark new fires once the bushland dries out. About 1,000 firefighters will patrol over the next week looking for stumps to extinguish. The threat of more fires later in the southern summer has raised political temperatures in New South Wales with claims that the state government ignored recommendations on fire-reduction measures in parklands. The state government undertook hazard-reduction after last year's Christmas bushfires which destroyed around 170 properties and 770,000 hectares of land. Experts advised that up to 7 percent of national parks in NSW should have fire-prevention work done on them but the critics claim only 1 percent of this work was carried out. Opposition spokesman on special affairs of state, Barry O'Farrell, said documents showed that State Forests had conducted only about 45,000 hectares of hazard-reduction burn-offs this year, not more than 500,000 hectares as claimed by the government. The government hit back by saying south-eastern Australia was one of the most fire-prone areas in the world and hazard reduction would never completely prevent fires. State emergency services minister Bob Debus said even if hazard reduction was carried out on five million hectares of the state's land, the fire threat may not have been averted, the Australian Associated Press reports. Around 4,500 firefighters and up to 90 aircraft have been used to battle the fires which threatened Sydney, a city of 4 million people. Weather forecasters now say more hot, dry weather is likely ahead of Christmas and more fires cannot be ruled out. Much of Australia has been suffering from the worst drought on record and despite these latest rains, the land and bush is still tinderbox dry.
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