BARGO, Australia (AFP) — A scorching heatwave intensified bushfires ravaging parts of Australia on Saturday, and out-of-control blazes surrounding Sydney worsened under “catastrophic” conditions.
Australia’s eastern coast has been hit by a record-breaking heatwave, which has moved in from the west of the country, fanning hundreds of fires in its path.
Sydney was shrouded in toxic smoke as blazes flared to its north, south and west, some just 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Australia’s largest city.
“Today has been an awful day,” New South Wales sate fire commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Saturday afternoon.
Temperatures were expected to peak at 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in parts of the state — the country’s most populous — including in parts of west Sydney.
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Australia endures bushfires every year but the early and intense start to this season, along with the record temperatures, has fuelled concerns about global warming.
The fires have torched at least three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land across the country — an area equivalent to the size of Belgium — with at least 10 people killed and more than 800 homes destroyed.
A “mega fire” burning over 460,000 hectares north of Sydney escalated Saturday, as did a fire burning on multiple fronts in the Blue Mountains, where authorities said an unknown number of properties were burning.
