Australia was bracing for strong winds that began to whip up bushfires in two states yesterday, potentially adding to the death toll of four.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology warned that winds and lightning strikes would increase the threat to communities across two states on the east coast, which have been ravaged by fire since Friday last week.
“A fresh burst of hot, dry westerly winds will result in severe fire dangers in the Darling Downs and Granite Belt,” the bureau said, referring to the border region between the states of Queensland and New South Wales.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Thunderstorms were possible over the northern part of that region, “bringing the risk of lightning as an ignition source for new fires,” it said.
By late afternoon, four emergency warnings had been put in place in New South Wales, while further north in Queensland one emergency-level fire was registered.
A body was found late on Wednesday in a scorched forest near the town of Kempsey in northeast New South Wales, police said.
He is suspected to be a 58-year-old man who lived in a nearby shed and had not been seen since Friday last week.
In New South Wales, 259 homes have been destroyed over the past week and 59 bush or grass fires were still burning, but none were rated at the “catastrophic” warning level triggered earlier in the week, the state’s Rural Fire Service said.
In Queensland, where 16 homes have been destroyed since Nov. 7, 57 fires were still burning by early evening, down from 61 in mid-afternoon.
The bushfire season has begun earlier than usual, in the southern hemisphere spring, and is expected to be long and brutal this year as a three-year drought has left broad swathes of Australia’s east and west more susceptible to fire.
Looking to avert fatigue among firefighters, Western Australia has sent teams out to relieve crews on the east coast, while New Zealand has also sent reinforcements.
“We’re doing what we can for our fellow Aussies, while still maintaining resources on the home front, which have been much needed in the past few days,” the Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services said on social media.
Additional reporting by AP
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