Millions of residents and travellers across several states have been warned to stay alert as the risk of Christmas week bushfires intensify. Several states entered Monday battling dangerous blazes or warning of potential outbreaks, including NSW, with hot, dry and windy conditions expected to pose extreme fire danger in Sydney.
The Grampians national park blaze burned through more than 36,000 hectares about 20% of the park's footprint and forced several towns to evacuate before pivoting north-east late on Sunday, prompting evacuation warnings for hamlets east of the park.
As we look toward Boxing Day, firefighters are currently conducting back-burning operations to protect nearby towns and establish fire breaks, Cook said. Authorities said it could take weeks to fully contain the fire ignited by a lightning strike.
Our ability to fight this fire directly is quite challenging, said Aaron Kennedy, an incident controller. Kennedy said two years of drought have left the area dry and more susceptible to such intense fire conditions.
Collection
[
|
...
]