Australian officials fear fires will flare again
Copyright 2001 Reuters
December 28, 2001
Story by Paul Tait
SYDNEY - Firefighters have been working to contain bushfires ringing Sydney for the past four days but feared the blazes could flare again with a return of high temperatures and strong winds over the weekend.
The pall of smoke blanketing Australia's biggest city for the past four days thinned considerably overnight.
Calm, cooler conditions allowed firefighters to attempt backburning operations on fires to the city's south, west and northwest in an attempt to starve the fires of fuel.
"Hopefully...the weather stays the way that it was last night and doesn't whip up or doesn't get too hot so that some containment work can be done," Rural Fire Service spokesman Mark Sullivan said.
High winds over Christmas had whipped up fire storms which roared 60 km (37 miles) across New South Wales from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to the coast south of the city.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated, or are on standby to leave their homes, after a bleak Christmas holiday period.
Police suspect that up to 40 of the more than 100 fires ravaging the state were started deliberately and have set up a special taskforce to investigate arson.
While there have been no reports of death or serious injury, dozens of firefighters have been treated for smoke inhalation.
The fires have destroyed some 150 homes. Road and rail links have been severed and electricity supplies cut to about 12,000 properties. The fires have prevented repair crews working.
This summer's outbreak is the worst since 1994, when bush fires spread into the Sydney suburbs, killing four people.
Authorities fear a return over the next three days of the soaring temperatures and strong, dry winds which whipped the fires up on Christmas Day.
"People should not become complacent, a lot of these fires are set to take off again over the next couple of days if the rogue conditions prevail," Sullivan told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"It certainly appears from the weather forecast (for) very high temperatures and fresh to strong winds that it certainly could be a couple of nasty days ahead," he said.
HOMES BURNED OUT
The major blazes are in Sydney's outer western suburbs and to the south, where vast areas of the Royal National Park are already burned out. Large areas of the Blue Mountains national park area are also under severe threat.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman said temperatures could soar to 39 or 40 degrees Celsius (102-104 degrees Fahrenheit) by Sunday and could be fanned by strong winds and thunderstorms.
"Thunderstorms of course bring with it lightning," she said.
Lightning strikes were blamed for starting some of the summer fires in remote areas two weeks ago.
Fire units rushing from flare-up to flare-up saved about 11,000 properties over the past four days, fighting fires valley by valley and ridge by ridge.
Helicopters, sometimes hovering only a few metres (yards) about the trees, dropped water on the flames, filling their tanks from lakes and backyard swimming pools.
Some 5,000 firefighters, reinforced by hundreds of crews from other states, and 45 aircraft are also battling the fires.
The Insurance Council of Australia estimates the cost of the fires so far at about A$20 million ($10 million), although it could be much higher.
About 200 homes were destroyed and another 200 badly damaged in the 1994 fires, costing about A$56 million ($28 million).
Authorities have declared 21 natural disaster areas to the west and north of Sydney and on the nearby south coast. Some 5,000 sheep were killed in a massive blaze which burnt 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) in the west of the state.