NT resort guests woken to fire threat

9 Jan 2013, 5:06 pm   -   Source: AAP

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A bushfire in central Australia has forced a major resort to evacuate guests to a safe area for several hours.

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A bushfire in central Australia has forced a major resort to evacuate guests to a safe area for several hours.

Guests at the Kings Canyon Resort, about 300km southwest of Alice Springs, had their sleep cut short after a small bushfire threatened the area. It is also believed that the Lilla Aboriginal community was evacuated as a precaution on Tuesday.

Bushfires NT senior fire control officer Geoff Kenna said a relatively small fire saw resort guests evacuated to a safe area from about 4.30am until 7am on Tuesday morning.

"The resort did ask the people to evacuate their rooms and assemble at an assembly point," Mr Kenna said. "The fire had been reported by campers at Kings Canyon," he said.

Although that fire was contained, a number of other blazes in the area continued to burn on Tuesday.

Mr Kenna said Lurita Road, which leads to the Watarrka National Park where King's Canyon is located, had been cut off by fire.

That blaze was threatening the Aboriginal community of Lilla, as well as a ranger's station, he said.

Another fire up to 200 sq km in size at Napperby Station, northwest of Alice Springs, was continuing to burn on Tuesday. Alice Springs has been experiencing several days of hot, windy conditions, and lightning strikes have been causing fires.

Every day so far in 2013 has seen a maximum temperature above 40C at Alice Springs, and on Tuesday the record for the number of consecutive days above 42C was broken.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Angeline Prasad said the high temperatures were likely to continue into next week.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast maximum temperatures of 43C or 44C in Alice Springs each day until Friday.

Bushfires

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