Bushfire ravages giant sand island in Australia

AUSTRALIAN firefighters are struggling to control a massive bushfire that already destroyed 40 percent of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Fraser Island before a heatwave hit yesterday.

The fire on the world’s largest sand island, off Australia’s east coast, has been raging for more than six weeks and is consuming large swathes of the island’s unique forests.

Temperatures are forecast to peak at 34 degrees Celsius as a heatwave sweeps across the region, raising concerns that hotter conditions will further fuel the blaze.

“The vegetation on Fraser Island is extremely dry and because it’s so dry it’s therefore very easy to ignite,” incident controller James Haig said.

About two-thirds of Queensland state, including Fraser Island, is gripped by drought.

According to a recent report from the nation’s top science and meteorology agencies, climate change is fueling more extreme droughts, bushfires and cyclones in Australia, which they said would only worsen as temperatures continue to rise.

Firefighters on Fraser Island are not only battling “very challenging weather conditions,” Haig said, but are stymied by limited access to the blaze in the island’s remote north.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said the fire was burning on two fronts across 74,000 hectares, or 42 percent of the island, but was not threatening properties.

As the fire inched closer to settlements in recent days, authorities have banned new visitors from the popular holiday destination and restricted ferry services.

Haig said up to 10 water- bombing aircraft had been deployed, including some to protect culturally significant Aboriginal sites. Planes dropped about 250,000 liters of water on Saturday, but Haig said this “will not stop the fire” but merely slow it.