Canberra lifts state of emergency as threat subsides

SYDNEY: Wildfires that threatened Australia’s capital Canberra over the weekend have been brought under control as containment lines held and hot and windy conditions eased, prompting authorities to lift a state of emergency.

While fire in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), home to the capital city, has spread to more than 55,000ha, close to a quarter of the territory’s entire landmass, the heat fuelling the danger is subsiding.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the threat was not yet over and there may be weeks of firefighting ahead.

“We may need to return to a state of emergency if the situation requires it,” he said yesterday.

The ACT declared a state of emergency leading into the weekend, which gave authorities greater powers to order evacuations, close roads and take control of properties as fire threatened suburban areas.

It was the first time an emergency was declared in Australia’s capital since 2003 when fires destroyed almost 500 houses and led to four deaths.

But containment lines supported by airdrops of fire retardant helped keep the blaze back over the weekend, even in the face of wild winds and elevated temperatures which only fell in the capital overnight on Saturday, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.

The dangerous conditions started to ease yesterday, and there is favourable weather, and even rain, forecast for the rest of the week in the nation’s capital.

Australia’s prolonged bushfire season has killed 33 people and an estimated 1 billion native animals since September. About 2,500 homes have been destroyed and more than 11.7 million hectares of tinder-dry bushland have been razed. – Reuters