A fast-moving bushfire near Dirranbandi in southwest Queensland has been brought under control. Residents were forced to flee on Tuesday night but were allowed to return to their homes yesterday evening.
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00:00The situation here in the small town of Dirambandi in southwest Queensland is certainly a lot
00:07better than it was just 24 hours ago.
00:09The bushfire that had been raging in this region is now under control.
00:13Fire crews had been battling the bushfire for the past two days.
00:18Water-bombing aircraft had been brought in and some of the farmers who live in the area
00:21who had stayed behind to help defend their properties had got heavy machinery and cut
00:26some large fire breaks in the outskirts of town which really helped.
00:31The main concern last night from authorities was that the fire may flare up again.
00:36There are still a lot of hot spots.
00:38The weather is extremely hot, windy and they were worried that some embers may jump containment
00:43lines spread and the fire could flare up again.
00:46Thankfully though that didn't happen.
00:48The fire was brought under control late yesterday afternoon and the evacuation order that had
00:53been in place was lifted.
00:55Police came door to door two nights ago and told most of the 600 residents of the town
01:00to leave.
01:01The main reason for that was precautionary because the town had lost power.
01:05As you can see behind me, the fire had brought down some power lines.
01:09That had cut telecommunication so there was no phone service and the main road in and
01:13out of town was cut.
01:15For that reason, authorities thought it was simply too risky to allow people to stay so
01:19they had evacuated everyone to the neighbouring town of St George which is about 80km north
01:25of here.
01:26People had stayed overnight there in an evacuation centre that had been set up in the cultural
01:31centre.
01:32Thankfully though, the situation here now is under control.
01:35Most people did return home last night.
01:37Power and phone services have been restored.
01:39The road has reopened and fingers crossed the worst is behind us.
01:44The weather though today is still forecast to be extremely hot so authorities will be
01:48monitoring the situation.
01:50The temperatures are expected to rise into the mid 40s today and it is going to be very
01:54windy but thankfully, looking at the forecast, there is a few scattered showers on the radar.