CANBERRA, Australia—Australia’s most populous state declared a state of emergency on Monday due to unprecedented wildfire danger.
New South Wales state Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said residents were facing what “could be the most dangerous bushfire week this nation has ever seen.”
Fires in the state’s northeast have claimed three lives, destroyed more than 150 homes and razed more than 1 million hectares (3,800 square miles) of forest and farmland since Friday.
Doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100 people for fire-related injuries, including 20 firefighters, Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said.
North of New South Wales, wildfires destroyed nine homes on Monday in Queensland state, where air quality plummeted in Brisbane, the state capital, and surrounding cities to the lowest possible rating of “very poor.”
Health authorities urged residents not to go outside.
Australian military personnel are supporting 1,500 firefighters who were battling 60 blazes across the state.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the last time a state of emergency was declared in New South Wales was in 2013, when there were extensive fires in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
“The catastrophic weather conditions mean that things can change very quickly,” she told reporters in Sydney.
Catastrophic fire danger has been declared for Sydney and the Hunter Valley region to the north on Tuesday with severe and extreme danger across vast tracts of the rest of the state.
The weeklong declaration of a state of emergency gives the Rural Fire Service sweeping powers to control resources and direct other government agencies.
The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere summer, has started early after an unusually warm and dry winter.
