Wildfires destroy dozens more homes near capital
CANBERRA, Australia — Dozens of homes were destroyed overnight in Australia’s southeast but the wildfire threat diminished later Sunday across New South Wales state and around the national capital Canberra, officials said.
Bega Valley Mayor Kristy McBain said damage in her region 150 miles south of Canberra had yet to be fully assessed by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, but properties were lost.
“We’re talking probably dozens more. We want to make sure we continue to support our community. This fire isn’t over yet,” she said.
She said the blaze brought losses of homes in the valley to more than 400 in the current fire season.
Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan said damage assessment teams had yet to confirm media reports of homes lost near the village of Bumbalong, about 60 miles south of Canberra.
A dangerous fire threatened southern Canberra and the nearby village of Tharwa. The fire had burned 136,000 acres of forest and farmland by Sunday, with a perimeter 92 miles long, the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency said.
“This morning the fire is still active. There are still days and possibly weeks of firefighting ahead of us,” said Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
A state of emergency for Canberra and its surrounds remains in place until at least Monday. It is the first such emergency declaration in the Australian Capital Territory since 2003, when wildfires killed four people and destroyed almost 500 homes in a single day.
There were no fires burning at emergency level — the most dangerous on a threetier scale — across the Australian Capital Territory or surrounding New South Wales on Sunday.
Fires across southern Australia have claimed at least 33 lives since September, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed more than 26.2 million acres.