Weather warning as Tasmanian wilderness burns

These large air tankers are just two of more than 30 aircraft that are helping to battle bushfires on Tasmania's west coast. The fires were sparked by dry lightning nine days ago. The remote, inaccessible terrain means authorities are relying on aircraft, and about 50 remote area firefighters winched into firegrounds to try to control the blazes. We've also got some challenging fire weather coming up in the next few days, which will mean accessing the fireground will be difficult, and certainly controlling some of these fires will be difficult in these circumstances. Just after midday, an emergency warning was issued for Carina and surrounds, and people there were told to leave immediately. About an hour later, an emergency warning was issued for Sandy Cape and surrounds, instructing people to take shelter now. There's also a watch and act message for The Carina Eco Lodge has been evacuated, and authorities believe everyone has left the Sandy Cape area. That area is fairly isolated and access is very limited, so if you're in that vicinity, the best place to keep yourself and others safe is on the beaches. A large bushfire in the Arthur Pyman Conservation Area has reached more than 27,000 hectares in size. To the east is the Yellow Band Plain fire burning in the Meredith Range Regional Reserve, and the Canning Peak fire that's forced the closure of the overland track has grown to more than 4,000 hectares. About 1.6 kilometres of the overland track has been damaged by fire. We haven't really been able to get in and do a thorough assessment at the moment, purely because of the fire activity that remains on the ground, but at the earliest opportunity, we're going in to do those impact assessments and determine the best remedial methodology. Variable winds have made predicting fire behaviour difficult, and low cloud is hampering the ability of aircraft to target the blazes. Authorities expect it will take weeks to put out the bushfires, likening them to the 2019 Gell River fire in Tasmania's south-west. It's going to be a hard slog, we're looking at resourcing these fires for potentially another two weeks. We will support as a government all resources to ensure that we can combat the situation. The fire danger is expected to increase over the next two days, but fire crews are hopeful of rain on Friday. Over the period Friday to Sunday, we could see as much as 10 to 30 millimetres over that part of the northwest, which sounds like a lot. It's a lot more than we've had lately, but it's still not a lot in terms of precipitation. Firefighters resigned to a long campaign. Jessica Moran, ABC News.