SYDNEY: Firefighters with aircraft and thermal imaging equipment tackled bushfires in and near Australia’s two largest cities late on Friday as the country’s densely populated southeast braced for a major heat wave.
Forecasts that searing hot weather over the weekend could bring the worst bushfires for decades put much of the country on alert, with fire bans in three states and warnings that arsonists would be harshly dealt with.
Nursing homes were warned to be ready after several deaths during a heat wave last week. The temperature in the outback town of Ivanhoe in New South Wales (NSW) state is forecast to reach 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) on Saturday and the coastal cities of Sydney and Melbourne will bake under 40-plus Celsius.
Late on Friday, fire fighters said a fire broke out in a national park in the Sydney suburb of Lane Cove, while another hit the city’s northern outskirts.
“We are going through mopping up operations at the moment,” Superintendant Paul McGuiggan of the NSW fire service told Reuters. “We really want to ensure that through the night there’s no chance of others. We have got crews working their way through the bush with thermal imaging cameras.”
Aircraft were also water-bombing a fire east of Melbourne where 120 ha (300 acres) of parkland was destroyed, Victoria’s Country Fire Authority said.
A spokesman said there were fears the fire in the Bunyip State Park could spread on Saturday. “It is still going.