Wednesday, January 9th, 2013 — According to the Tasmania Fire Service, as of 9:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. UTC) January 7, 2013, thirty-five bushfires are currently active across Tasmania. Six of these blazes have reportedly been contained. Firefighters are still working to control nine more, which have been assigned a “high fire danger” rating. “Although extremely hot and dry weather continues to ravage most of New South Wales and Victoria, fire conditions have begun to ease across Tasmania, aiding firefighters efforts to hold containment lines and control the active blazes,” noted Tomas Girnius, senior scientist at AIR Worldwide.