A wildfire with a 60-mile front is blazing across Australia's most populous state of New South Wales after destroying more than 30 homes and damaging the country's biggest observatory. The wall of fire is threatening a town in the state's northwest as the heatwave continues in parts of the country.
Authorities
said the fire which burned on Sunday through the Warrumbungle National
Park was one of the most ferocious in the state's history. It has razed
about 40,000 hectares of bushland.
"To
have fire fighters trying to battle that blaze would have literally
been a suicide mission," said Rob Rogers, from the New South Wales Rural
Fire Service.
"The smoke plume of
that fire extended some [8.7 miles] into the air and even prevented us
from getting aircraft overhead because of just how dangerous and bumpy
the conditions were. Embers were being blown ahead of the fire and
starting a new fire some [3 miles] ahead and it became very apparent
early in the piece that there was just absolutely no stopping that fire
and it was simply too unsafe to leave people."
The
fire damaged the Siding Spring Observatory, the country's largest
optical astronomy research facility. Five buildings were destroyed but
the observatory's fifteen telescopes remained intact. The facility's
eighteen staff were evacuated.
"We do not yet know what impact the extreme heat
and the ash has had on the telescopes themselves," said Dr Erik
Lithander, from the Australian National University, which runs the
observatory.
"We won't be able carry out that assessment until we can enter the buildings and inspect the inside of them."
The fire has destroyed 33 homes around the town of Coonabarabran, about 280 miles north-west of Sydney, and is less than a mile from the small town of Bugaldie.
Donna Burton, one of hundreds of people evacuated from the region, said she did not know whether her home was destroyed but flames were already on the property when she left.
"It just became the most frightening thing I think I've seen ... or I want to see," she told ABC News.
"You could see a fire ball. It was like – you saw the darkness, you saw the smoke, you smelt it – it was almost like a mushroom cloud, but you could hear the crackling and the flames. It was literally a fire storm in the sky."
The nationwide heatwave is still causing soaring temperatures in various parts of the country, with Sydney and Melbourne facing temperatures of up to 102F (39C) on Thursday.
"We won't be able carry out that assessment until we can enter the buildings and inspect the inside of them."
The fire has destroyed 33 homes around the town of Coonabarabran, about 280 miles north-west of Sydney, and is less than a mile from the small town of Bugaldie.
Donna Burton, one of hundreds of people evacuated from the region, said she did not know whether her home was destroyed but flames were already on the property when she left.
"It just became the most frightening thing I think I've seen ... or I want to see," she told ABC News.
"You could see a fire ball. It was like – you saw the darkness, you saw the smoke, you smelt it – it was almost like a mushroom cloud, but you could hear the crackling and the flames. It was literally a fire storm in the sky."
The nationwide heatwave is still causing soaring temperatures in various parts of the country, with Sydney and Melbourne facing temperatures of up to 102F (39C) on Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment