Thousands brace for more wildfires, chaos
SYDNEY - Tens of thousands of Australians braced for a second day of high danger across the country’s east coast on Wednesday as scores of uncontrolled bushfires threatened several communities.
A cool change overnight brought some relief for firefighters in New South Wales (NSW) state after potentially “catastrophic” high winds and searing heat on Tuesday, when flames came within metres of homes in Greater Sydney.
Officials shifted their attention north on Wednesday morning to Queensland state, where temperatures are expected to hit 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit), which coupled with a change in wind direction, are expected to whip up flames there.
They also warned that despite success in dousing some of the NSW fires, nobody was yet completely safe with hotter and worse conditions forecast for next week.
Firefighters were battling blazes over a more than 1000 km (620 mile) perimeter on Wednesday, with more than 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) of land either burnt or burning.
“We will not have all these fires contained before then,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney
on Wednesday morning.
“We will not have all these fires contained and locked up for many, many weeks.
“Unfortunately, what we need is rain. What we need is meaningful rain. And there is certainly nothing in the forecast for the foreseeable future that’s going to make any discernible difference to the conditions that we are experiencing.”
Bushfires are a common and deadly threat in Australia’s hot, dry summers, but the ferocity and early arrival of this year’s outbreak in the southern hemisphere spring has caught many by surprise.