CONDITIONS WORSEN AS FIRES RAGE IN OZ
SYDNEY: Firefighters in Australia warned on Tuesday they would not be able to contain some of the 100 fires still ablaze in the country before conditions are expected to deteriorate later this week.
SYDNEY: Firefighters in Australia warned on Tuesday they would not be able to contain some of the 100 fires still ablaze in the country before conditions are expected to deteriorate later this week.
Temperatures across parts of the eastern state of New South Wales (NSW) are expected to top 40 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, just shy of a record high for Australia’s most populous state.
With bushland tinder-box dry, authorities warned locals near existing blazes that fires could spread. “People should be under no illusion, we won’t contain the fires by the time the weather deteriorates later this week,” NSW rural fire service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers told Australia’s Channel 9.
Firefighters are battling more than 120 fires across NSW, including a 60km fire front northwest of Sydney, one many of that have been burning since November.
The fires have killed six people, destroyed more than 680 homes and burned nearly 3 million acres of bushland.
KOALAS RESCUED FROM PATH OF BUSHFIRE
A dozen koalas have been rescued from the path of bushfires raging near Sydney, conservationists said. Rescuers scaled trees this week to retrieve three adult males, five adult females and four joeys, whose habitat is under threat from a fire burning in the Blue Mountains.