Rain offers hope in bushfire fight
SYDNEY: Forecasts of heavy rain offered hope yesterday in the months-long battle to contain Australia’s unprecedented bushfires, but smoke lifted pollution levels in the nation’s second biggest city to among the worst in the world. Cool weather over recent days has already given some respite for exhausted firefighters spread out across vast swathes of the […]
Australia gets recovery fund
SYDNEY: Reserve troops fanned out across fire-ravaged regions in three Australian states yesterday after a horror weekend, as the government pledged $1.4 billion over two years to help recover from the devastating months-long crisis. Catastrophic bush fires have turned swathes of land into smouldering, blackened hells capes and destroyed an area about the size of […]
Australia orders mass evacuation
SYDNEY: Australia ordered residents and tourists out of the path of raging bush fires yesterday as the country braced for a weekend heatwave expected to fan the deadly inferno. Catastrophic blazes ripped through the country’s south-east on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers. New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian […]
Hottest day in Australia
SYDNEY: Australia this week experienced its hottest day on record and the heatwave is expected to worsen, exacerbating an already unprecedented bushfire season, authorities said yesterday. The average nationwide temperatures of 40.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday beat the previous record of 40.3 degrees Celsius in January 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said. “This heat will […]
Sydney trims Christmas tree with bushfire debris
SYDNEY: A Christmas tree made from charred branches and other bushfire debris has been put up in Sydney’s central business district in a poignant reminder of deadly wildfires that have ravaged much of Australia. The tree is made and decorated with burnt logs, a scorched bicycle, a ruined fire alarm and other destroyed household goods, […]
Koalas rescued from path of raging bushfire
SYDNEY: A dozen koalas have been rescued from the path of bushfires raging near Sydney, conservationists said Tuesday, as devastating blazes increasingly encroach on critical habitat. Rescuers scaled trees this week to retrieve three adult males, five adult females and four joeys, whose habitat is under threat from a fire burning across 140,000 hectares in […]
Bushfire haze a health emergency
SYDNEY: Australia’s biggest city is facing a “public health emergency” over the bushfire smoke that has choked Sydney for weeks, leading doctors warned yesterday after hospitals reported a dramatic spike in casualty department visits. Hundreds of climate change fuelled bush fires have been raging across Australia for months, with efforts to contain a “megablaze” burning […]
Toxic haze blankets eastern Australia
SYDNEY: Toxic haze blanketed Sydney yesterday triggering a chorus of smoke alarms to ring across the city and forcing school children inside, as “severe” weather conditions fuelled deadly bush blazes along Australia’s east coast. Fire engines raced office-to-office in the city centre with sirens blaring, as inland bush fires poured smoke laden with toxic particles […]
Sydney struggles to breathe
MELBOURNE: A giant bushfire on the edge of Sydney, which has blanketed the city in smoke causing a spike in respiratory illnesses and the cancellation of outdoor sports, will take weeks to control but will not be extinguished without heavy rains, firefighters said. Thousands of weary firefighters, who have been battling bush fires for a […]
Mega fire forms north of Sydney
SYDNEY: Several Australian bush fires have combined to form a “mega fire” that is burning out of control across a swathe of land north of Sydney, authorities said yesterday, warning they cannot contain the blaze. New South Wales Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, Rob Rogers said “there are probably more than eight fires in all” […]
