Australian fires - UPDATE

Residents sift through charred homes

Devastating bush fires raging in NSW

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he fears more deaths will be confirmed as the bushfires in New South Wales claim a life and the fire storms show no sign of stopping.

Radio NZ,

18 October, 2013

The scene in the worst-hit areas of the Blue Mountains, about 70km from Sydney, has been described as one of utter devastation, with fears as many as 200 homes may have been destroyed.

More than 2000 fire-fighters across the state worked throughout the night to try and contain the blazes, which began on Thursday, but many are still burning out of control. Some fires have been so intense, many residents have not been able to get to evacuation centres.

Firefighters battle a bushfire burning close to homes in the Blue Mountains near Sydney.

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Officials say a 63-year-old man died after collapsing from a suspected heart attack while defending his home at Lake Munmorah on the Central Coast late on Thursday.

Fires have been burning out of control in Wollongong, Newcastle, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains with a thick cloud of smoke shrouding central Sydney. The fires had been fanned by winds gusting up to 80km/h.

Smoke and ash from wildfires burning across in New South Wales blankets Sydney.

Fire crews are taking advantage of the cooler and less windy conditions on Friday before temperatures return to a forecast 30 degrees Celsius in a couple of days.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says some of the fires are too big to contain in such a short time.

"We will do all that we can to secure and protect as many properties, as many suburbs, as many communities as we can - particularly being watchful to the potential for the existing fires to be affected by those tougher and conditions coming into Sunday and Monday."

New South Wales Premier, Barry O'Farrell, says the community needs to be prepared for very bad news.

"We've got volunteers coming in from around the state to deploy resources to tackle these issues. We're unclear yet as to how many properties have been lost, but it's suspected that by the time we finish counting it'll at least be in the 100s."

I continue to be disgusted by the paucity of coverage of events in neighbouring Australia in this country's media. 

Homes destroyed by wildfires raging in Australia, one dead

Authorities were assessing damage from almost 100 wildfires burning across Australia's most populous state today that killed one man, razed an unknown number of homes and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate

NZ Herald,

18 October, 2013

Milder conditions were helping firefighters after yesterday's unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds fanned flames across the parched landscape and threatened towns surrounding Sydney.

Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Natalie Sanders said the number of fires in New South Wales state had dropped from more than 100 overnight to 94, burning across 86,000 hectares. But 28 continued to burn out of control, she said.

Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said interstate firefighters were on their way to help fight the blazes, including one burning near the town of Lithgow, west of the Blue Mountains, across a front 25 kilometres wide.

Assessment teams and police were moving into the destruction zones in search of survivors and victims, he said. Officials also were trying to determine how many homes were destroyed.

"I know some information that's been passed to me that just in one street, there were 40 homes lost," Rogers told Nine Network television.

The Fire Service said a 63-year-old man had a fatal heart attack while he was fighting a fire at his home at Lake Munmorah, north of Sydney, late Thursday.

Two firefighters were hospitalised with injuries, and one had undergone surgery, New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell said. He did not detail the injuries.

A plane carrying infrared imaging equipment flew over the fires Thursday night and recorded heat spots where maps showed homes were located, Emergency Services Minister Mike Gallacher said. The red and orange spots indicated the homes were burning.

"Sadly, where most of these little red dots were, that's where yesterday morning there used to be houses," Gallacher told Nine.

Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill visited the devastated village of Winmalee, on Sydney's western fringe, where the risk had subsided after some streets were almost entirely razed.

"It's been an awful 24 hours for the Blue Mountains" region, Greenhill told Nine.

"We've lost possibly scores of homes, I can't put the number closer than that," he said. "In the area that we're standing at at the moment, we're talking about 40 to 50 homes (destroyed) which is just awful."

The fire front was still visible from Winmalee on Friday, but had moved toward the neighbouring village of Springwood where homes were being evacuated.

Hundreds of residents spent Thursday night in dozens of evacuation centres in the Blue Mountains and elsewhere in New South Wales. Most were unaware of the fate of their homes.

Rogers said firefighters wouldn't be able to extinguish the blazes before high temperatures and strong winds are forecast to return on Sunday and Monday.

Temperatures west of Sydney were expected to reach around 23 degrees Celsius on Friday - around 10 degrees Celsius cooler than on Thursday. Gentle breezes had replaced strong winds.

"It's calmed down a lot since yesterday, but make no mistake: We've got thousands of kilometres of fire front that we are faced with trying to deal with," Rogers said.

"This is absolutely far from being over," he added.

A smoky haze from the fires hung over downtown Sydney, where even inside high-rise office buildings, the stench of smoke permeated the air.

Wildfires are common throughout Australia in the warmer months. In February 2009, wildfires killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Victoria state.

Read the much better coverage in the Guardian HERE