> Are they just trying to prevent the spread and wait till the fire kills itself?

Basically this whenever possible, often if it's not near a populated area they won't even try to limit the spread, they put themselves out eventually with the right conditions (wind, rain, geography). Near populated areas they do what they can, mostly controlled burns and having fire breaks that allow them to effectively concentrate resources (firetrucks, water bombers) where they can actually be useful, a firetruck can be effective where there's a firebreak but without one it would be suicide to be there.

I can help answer this, one of my parents is a volunteer firefighter who was helping within the last few days. The current mandate for the CFA is asset protection, ie; protecting houses, farms and other properties where they can. It's understood that the fires can't be put out in the current conditions, so resources are focused on protecting buildings for now.

We're hoping for rain, but that's probably not going to appear in any significant quantities for a couple of months.