Officials have issued
fresh warnings for blazes around Sydney
About 100 bushfires
are raging in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), with the most
severe forming into a “mega blaze” north of Sydney.
More than 2,000
firefighters are battling bushfires, which escalated in intensity late on
Thursday.
Australia’s largest
city has been blanketed by thick smoke all week, causing a rise in medical
problems.
Since October,
bushfires have killed six people and destroyed more than 700 homes across
Australia.
The severity of the
blazes so early in the fire season has caused alarm, and prompted calls for
greater action to tackle climate change.
More than 1.6 million
hectares of land in NSW have been burnt already. Fires have also raged across
Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Fires spanned the
entire NSW coastline on Friday, with some sparking emergency warnings amid hot
and windy conditions.
Authorities confirmed
three fires had merged into a “mega blaze” north of Sydney on Friday,
covering more than 300,000 hectares. That blaze is about the size of greater
Sydney, officials said.
“We have also
seen the fires coming in very close proximity to major population
centres,” said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Many fires have raged
for weeks, feeding off tinder-dry conditions from a severe drought which has
affected much of the nation.
