Wildfires continue across Australia, leave trail of damages, losses

Firefighters battled scores of wildfires raging across southeast Australia on Tuesday as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that blistering temperatures and high winds had led to "catastrophic" conditions in some areas.

In New South Wales, the country's most populous state, the fires had burned through more than 26,000 hectares (64,000 acres) of land.
More than 130 fires were blazing across New South Wales, though only a few dozen houses were under threat by early evening.

One fire was threatening about 30 homes near the small town of Cooma, south of the capital of Canberra.

Officials said some residents had evacuated to the nearby town of Nimmitabel.

Strong winds were hampering efforts to bring the fires under control.

Wind gusts more than 100 kilometres an hour (62 miles per hour) were recorded in some parts of the state.

"The weather conditions are such that we can't do any active firefighting at the moment. The wind is too strong, it's just too hot  and the fire danger rating is far too high," New South Wales state Rural Fire Service Incident Controller told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (AuBC) near Nowra.

All state forests and national parks were closed as a precaution and total fire bans were in place with temperatures surpassing 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some areas.

A brief cool change is expected over New South Wales state later Tuesday but officials said conditions are still dangerous.

"We're not out of the woods (danger) yet, certainly. We've still got many hours to go and communities right across New South Wales (state) have still got to deal with some very, very difficult conditions," New South Wales State Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AuBC.

One volunteer firefighter suffered severe burns to his hands and face while fighting a grass fire near Gundaroo village, about 220 kilometres (138 miles) southwest of Sydney, on Monday.

He was flown to a hospital in Sydney for treatment.

Fitzsimmons, the fire commissioner, said the firefighter's condition had improved on Tuesday, and he should be released from the hospital in the next few days.

In the Victoria state town of Chepstowe near Ballarat, a grassfire prompted the state's Country Fire Authority to issue an emergency warning for residents.
No deaths had been reported, although officials in Tasmania state were still trying to find around 100 residents who have been missing since a fire tore through the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, last week, destroying around 90 homes.

On Tuesday, police said no bodies were found during preliminary checks of the ruined houses.

Catastrophic threat level is the most severe rating applicable.

Wildfires have razed 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer.
In February 2009, hundreds of fires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.


AP