By Tony O'Riley-
Australia fires have been raging out of control, destroying fires on Sydney’s outskirts, and could be out of control for months, the North South Wales Australian fire chief has said.
The New South Waled Fire chief said it could be months before eastern Australia has more than a million hectares of bushfires is brought under control, as the country faces one of its worst and most unprecedented bush fire outbreaks.
Unpredictable levels of winds and worsening fires in the neighbouring state of Queensland, with much hotter temperatures are also predicted for the Sydney area next week, according to Shane Fitzsimmons.
“The real challenge is we have an enormous amount of country that is still alight. They won’t have this out for days, weeks, months .Unfortunately the forecast is nothing but above-average temperatures and below-average rainfall over the next few months and we’ve still got summer around the corner,” he said.
Bush fires are not uncommon in Australia, but sources from Australian BBC told The Eye Of Media.Com that the scale of the fires witnessed are ”frightening” and ”unnerving’. and of a near ‘apocolaptic scale’. Some are wondering if there are any causative links to climate change, and have expressed concern about the long term potential scale of the damage.
Three people have died and more than 170 homes have been destroyed in the worst number across the state in decades apart from on Friday, when an unprecedented 17 emergency fires blazed. Firefighters in both NSW and Queensland have used their resources to force evacuations and close roads. Health authorities in Sydney warned people with respiratory issues to stay indoors because the city was covered by a “hazardous” smoky haze
Over 600 schools were closed on Tuesday, with whole towns evacuated, as severe winds fanned dozens of existing fires across NSW and Queensland. An extreme and persistent drought has left much of the two states tinder-dry, with forests, grasslands, and farmland vulnerable to dry lightning strikes or accidental blazes.
NSW had declared an unprecedented “catastrophic” rating for Sydney and surrounding regions for Tuesday, when firefighting conditions were at their worst. Residents of fire-prone areas were warned that fires would not be able to be stopped in those conditions, and that houses were not designed to withstand fires of that intensity.
Emergency warnings have been given for imminent threat to life.
Image:bbc.com