Arya News - Wildfires have ripped through a town in the Australian state of New South Wales, engulfing more than a dozen homes, as authorities urged residents of the region to “leave now”.
Credit: Reuters
Wildfires have ripped through a town in the Australian state of New South Wales, engulfing more than a dozen homes, as authorities urged residents of the region to “leave now”.
The blaze broke out in the coastal town of Koolewong, north of Sydney, as temperatures hit 42C (108F) on Saturday.
Authorities sent out an alert for the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy areas in the state’s central coastal region and put danger warnings to their highest level for thousands of residents across New South Wales, the nation’s most populous state.
Residents of the coastal region, which has a population of more than 350,000 people and is around 45km (30 miles) north of Sydney, were urged to “leave now if the path is clear towards Woy Woy” by the state’s Rural Fire Service.
More than 50 bushfires were burning across the state late on Saturday, including a blaze in the Upper Hunter area.
Firefighters spray water on the ruins of a house after a bushfire engulfed homes in Koolewong - Dan Himbrechts/EPA/Shutterstock
Up to 16 homes were engulfed by the Koolewong fire, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported. A resident said: “You had no time to even think... we’ve lost everything, all we’ve got left is what we’re wearing.”
Paul Collis, the duty commander for New South Wales Fire and Rescue, told ABC: “A lot of the homes are built on steep and difficult terrain with multi-level houses ... a lot of them are made of timber with timber decks and they’re very, very hard to protect.”
The fire comes after several calmer seasons, with authorities warning that put the country at higher risk because the accumulation of dead vegetation and forest debris would facilitate wildfire spread.
A Coulson Hercules air tanker, used to drop water or fire retardant, flies over the Koolewong on Saturday - Dan Himbrechts/EPA/Shutterstock
In 2019 to 2020, Australia experienced some of the most catastrophic fires in its history as flames engulfed an area the size of Turkey and 33 people were killed.
In what became known as “Black Summer”, a lack of soil moisture and exceptionally dry conditions sparked fires in Queensland that then ripped across the south-east of the country until March 2020.
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