Australian authorities ordered the evacuation of some sparsely populated rural areas of New South Wales on Sunday (February 12) as bushfires, fanned by extreme heat and strong winds, raged across the state, threatening homes and closing roads.
A heat wave on Australia’s east coast saw temperatures hit records in some parts of the state, creating conditions that officials said were worse than those preceding Victoria’s 2009 “Black Saturday” fires, Australia’s worst bushfire event that killed 173 people.
“We have got reports across a number of the fire grounds, particularly those that are subject of emergency warning that we are seeing property impacted and we are expecting to see property lost.” Shane Fitzsimmons, the state’s rural fire chief, told reporters.
The areas hit by fires are hundreds of kilometres from Sydney, the state capital.
There were no reports of injuries, but some fire-fighters were suffering from heat-related issues.
By Sunday (February 12) afternoon, emergency warnings were issued for five rural areas. People were told to evacuate if they could, or to seek shelter and avoid bush or grassland where it was too late to leave.
More than 2,000 firefighters, many of them volunteers, were battling 86 fires across New South Wales on Sunday afternoon, with 38 of them not under control.
“Not good. It’s dreadful, yeah. Yeah, just nothing you can do,” said one firefighter.
A 13-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man were charged on Sunday for allegedly starting fires.
Temperatures climbed above 45 degrees Celsius (113°F) in some parts. Dry and hot north-westerly winds coming from Australia’s desert center, some up to 75 kilometres an hour (47 mph,) were fanning the bushfires.
A southerly wind change associated with a cold front was forecast to arrive by early evening, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
(REUTERS)
