A giant bushfire on the edge of Sydney, which has blanketed the city in smoke causing a spike in respiratory illnesses and the cancelation of outdoor sports, will take weeks to control, but will not be extinguished without heavy rain, firefighters said yesterday.
Thousands of weary firefighters, who have been battling bushfires for a month, were fighting nearly 100 blazes in New South Wales.
The mega-fire north of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, was created on Friday when several fires merged and was burning across 335,000 hectares.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The pilot of a helicopter supporting the fire efforts was lucky to escape with just minor injuries after crashing about 200km north of the city yesterday.
A shipping container full of fireworks exploded as the fire raged, authorities said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the explosion.
“We need flooding rain to put these fires out. That’s really what is going to stop it,” the New South Wales Rural Fire Service said. “These will take many weeks to put out.”
Bushfires are common in Australia during the summer, which begins in December, but this year the fires started much earlier, blamed on soaring temperatures, dry winds and arson.
A three-year drought has left much of Australia tinder dry.
The fires around Sydney have been pumping such vast amounts of smoke into the air that they appear as significant rain on the radars, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Twitter.
New South Wales Health on Friday said that about 1,140 people had sought medical assistance for breathing issues or asthma in the past week — a quarter more than in a typical week.
New South Wales Ambulance fielded about one-third more calls.
Six people have been killed, nearly 700 houses burned down and millions of hectares of land razed.
Strong winds fanned flames toward several suburbs in southwest Sydney yesterday.
“It’s been going on all day, a fire came from the back and we put it out, but then another one came from the side so the firies [firefighters] covered the house in foam,” said Luke Wright, who helped save his brother’s home.
“The fence has been damaged, but that’s about it, very lucky,” Wright told local media.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said that the worst might still be ahead, with temperatures forecast to rise to 40°C in the next few days and no meaningful rainfall expected until late next month.
“It’s a tough couple of months ahead yet and we’ve already seen the horrific consequences of fire so far this season,” Fitzsimmons told Australia’s 9News.
Easing conditions overnight provided brief respite in the state and allowed for controlled burning to prevent damage during the anticipated heat wave.
Queensland was yesterday battling about 45 bushfires in temperatures as high as 40°C.
Additional reporting by AFP
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS