Aaron Hinds, of Westbury, has been a volunteer firefighter for more than 10 years. 

He spent Friday fighting one of the worst fires he’d ever seen. 

“It’s absolutely horrible, like 50 to 60 km/h winds, heat and smoke. It’s not an ideal situation to be in,” Mr Hinds said.

“I’ve come home smelling like a thousand bonfires.”

Mr Hinds said the bushland was dense and difficult to access. 

“A lot of it is helicopter access only and, for our safety, a lot of places we can’t get into because there is only one way in and one way out,” he said. 

“Because it is so rocky up there the rocks store the heat, so you put something out and then you come back half an hour later and it’s on fire again.

“It is sort of a surreal experience, you’re just in the moment you can see fires coming and everything sort of goes slow motion.” 

For days the Bureau of Meteorology and the Tasmania Fire Service predicted Friday would be the most extreme day of the week, with high temperatures and gusty winds expected in the state’s south-west. 

“It was pretty intense but our training sort of kicks in and you’ve got to do what you do,” Mr Hinds said in reference to his 11-hour shift at Miena on Friday. 

“You are looking out for yourself and those around you, but at the same time you’re trying to battle something that is quite unpredictable at times.”

Camaraderie with fellow firefighters and all the emergency services workers and volunteers was a highlight for Mr Hinds. 

“You’re there with your fellow firefighters and volunteers and mateship is so incredible,” he said.

The Miena bushfire “more than doubled in size” in Friday’s extreme weather conditions, but the threat to the town has eased Tasmania Fire service district officer Steve Lowe said.

“[This fire] took a massive run yesterday due to those extreme weather conditions we had,” he said.

“The saving grace for us was the main front of the fire ran into Lake Echo. That certainly restricted the amount of fire spread to the south. We have had spot fires spread south-east of Lake Echo, some 10 kilometres away and we are trying to round those up now.”

Miena township was protected due to back burning efforts.

“The threat to Miena has eased due to the contingencies we put in place two days ago,” Mr Lowe said.

“Both of those burns held with the conditions we had yesterday, which allowed us to concentrate on other areas of effort.”

Bronte and farming communities towards Bothwell are still under threat.

“There are several smaller farming communities to the south of the fire now that are still predominantly under threat. We have no active edge on that fire at all,” he said.

“The fire is still moving in a south-easterly direction, with a northerly wind push. We’re currently constructing fire lines now in that south-east corner to try and put in some contingencies to allow us time and space to bring this fire under control.”

After Friday’s difficult conditions, crews spent Saturday reopening the access points they had lost due to fire blocking roads and falling trees.

“Today really is about opening up those access points again to give us that control that we need,” Mr Lowe said.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted temperatures of 28 and 30 degrees for Tuesday and Wednesday, which Mr Lowe said crews were now preparing for.

“It’s extremely important that we get as much control, knowing what the weather conditions are going to be over the next three or four days,” he said.

No more property has been lost in the fires since last week.

“There’s some great work done by crews in and around properties to protect those, however the majority of this fire travel was in state forest,” Mr Lowe said.

“We’re going to be on this fire for several weeks, if not months, if we don’t get any rainfall to assist us.”

Fire crews from all over Tasmania and Remote Area fire teams from ACT and NSW have been deployed.

“The morale has been quite high. We are rotating crews in and out as we need to to try and manage their fatigue.”

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