Crews work in difficult conditions to bring the Carrai East fire under control

RFS public liaison officer Daniel Osborne updated the community during a meeting at the Kempsey Evacuation Centre this morning and said yesterday afternoon was a trying time for crews.

"Yesterday did prove to be quite a challenging day for us," He said.

"In the late afternoon the fire was raised back to watch and act because we had an increase in fire behaviour and crews pulled back from their back burning and went into focusing on property protection."

At the time that the RFS raised the alert level, there was fire activity in the Hickey's Creek Rd area, Willi Will Rd at Temagog and the Five Day Creek Rd area.

"This took up most of our afternoon and not assisting us was the fact we were impacted by smoke all day and we expect the same thing will happen today," Mr Osborne said.

"Aircraft were grounded all day yesterday and we expect the same today, which makes the whole operation more challenging given the size of the area of the fire."

The Carrai East blaze has now burnt over 110,000 hectares and has broken the 900 kilometre perimeter.

The RFS were concerned about the Carrai East fire and the Ebor blaze joining which is likely to occur today or tomorrow.

"Part of our focus today is on the Five Day Creek Rd area. We received numerous triple zero calls from that location yesterday afternoon from residents needing assistance as the fire came towards their properties," Mr Osborne said.

Mr Osborne said the RFS have determined to change the fire's status from out of control to being controlled.

"It means we have identified containemnt options around the fire's perimeter and the fire is currently behind those containment options. That does not mean there is no threat to some properties. There could still be properties between the fire and the containment options," he said.

"The threat is certainly not over for some people. There is still a long way to go and lots of active fire."

Residents are urged to stay vigilant, monitor the Fires Near Me website and stay up to date on the RFS Lower North Coast Team Facebook page.

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