Border-to-border fire threat
After a brief lull in the weather, Australian emergency services are once again worried as conditions in New South Wales and Queensland deteriorate by more than what was expected.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service said yesterday that heading into the weekend there was a severe fire danger from “border to border”.
ABC reported that residents near a bush fire burning through large swathes of the Wollemi National Park, near Sydney, were being warned to “leave before it is too late”.
The Rural Fire Service also issued an emergency warning for the blaze at Gospers Mountain, about 40 kilometres north of Richmond, in Sydney's northwest.
ABC quoted the fire service as saying the Gospers Mountain fire was ”fast moving” and spreading quickly amid hot and windy conditions. Crews were fighting the 85,000-hectare fire on several fronts, it said.
Sydney was set to hit a high of 35C, several degrees hotter than was expected earlier in the week.
Brisbane was expected to reach 33C and Ipswich a blistering 37C.
In NSW, 1600 firefighters were battling some 60 bush fires, more than half of which were uncontained. Severe fire danger stretches from the Queensland border to southern NSW.
In Queensland, more than 70 fires were burning with 36 structures destroyed. A severe fire danger warning was in place for the Darling Downs.
Multiple “leave now” instructions were in place for communities around Bundaberg and Gympie.
The death toll for wildfires raging across New South Wales rose to four on Thursday after a body was found in a scorched forest near the town of Kempsey in northeast of the state. He is suspected to be a 58-year-old man who lived in a nearby shed and had not been seen since last Friday when ferocious wildfires across New South Wales killed three other people and destroyed at least 150 homes.
news.com.au