AUSTRALIA FIRES THREATEN TOP CITIES, FANNED BY HEATWAVE

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE: A volunteer firefighter was killed battling Australian bushfires on Monday as “columns” of flames generating their own dangerous weather systems bore down on a tourist region, prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

The firefighter, and two others who suffered burns, were working on a fire about 70 km east of Albury in New South Wales (NSW) when, it is believed, their truck rolled after being hit by strong winds, authorities said on Twitter. The incident took the death toll from the country’s raging bushfires to nine and added pressure on authorities to reconsider New Year celebration plans for the city of Sydney.

Around 100 fires are burning across Australia, with as many as 14 “emergency” warnings in place for Victoria while fires are also threatening homes and infrastructure in South Australia and Tasmania.

Tens of thousands were evacuated as “columns of fire” fuelled by extreme heat and high winds bore down on the popular tourist region of East Gippsland in Victoria state in Australia’s southeast.

Wildfires that have plagued the country’s eastern coast for weeks flared again to danger levels in East Gippsland, an area encompassing two national parks, lakes and coastal plains that is half the size of Belgium.

NEW YEAR FIREWORKS AT SYDNEY TO GO ON

Sydney will set off its iconic New Year’s Eve fireworks after being granted an exemption to a total fire ban on Monday, with other Australian cities cancelling their celebrations due to a worsening wildfire risk. Pressure had built for Sydney’s spectacle to be scrapped before the New South Wales Rural Fire Service approved the event on Monday. The popular celebrations are expected to attract around a million people to Sydney’s famous harbour front.