Sydney under threat as 70 fires rage in western Australia

 

 

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Sydney under threat as 70 fires rage in western Australia
10/23/2013 11:50:21 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Bush fires have now blazed across more than 311,000 acres, firefighters say
• NEW: More than 60 wildfires reported in New South Wales; 26 are not contained
• Western suburbs of Sydney are now threatened by growing wildfires
• Prime Minister disputes claims that wildfire spread is linked to climate change

Are you affected by the fires? Send us your pictures and experiences but please stay safe

Blue Mountains, Australia (CNN) -- Wildfires threatened the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia's largest city, Wednesday as high winds and temperatures created at least a dozen new fires that are blazing across a 1,000-mile stretch of New South Wales.

As about 1,500 Australian firefighters battled the flames, the nation's Prime Minister said the U.N. head of climate change was "talking through her hat" on claims that this spate of wildfires is linked to global warming.

More than 60 wildfires -- including 26 that are uncontained -- are raging across a wide swath of Australia's most populous state, authorities said. The Sydney Airport region and Lucas Heights areas were placed under extreme fire warnings. Power is out at more than 1,300 homes in fire-stricken regions, according to Ausgrid, a state-owned electricity network.

"As the conditions are warming up, we're seeing an increase in fire activity. We're also seeing a number of new fires starting right across the fire-affected areas," said Shane Fitzsimmons, Rural Fire Service (RFS) commissioner. "It's a fluid situation."

Local officials are surprised by the early arrival of bush fires this year as spring turns toward summer in the Southern Hemisphere. "Never before have we seen the extent of damage and destruction and wide-scale fire activity at this time of the year," Fitzsimmons said. "The fight is far from over."

Fires inflame climate change debate

At least one death has been reported. A 63-year-old man died of a suspected heart attack Friday while defending his home against a blaze on the New South Wales Central Coast, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The wildfires stretch along a nearly 1,000-mile line in New South Wales, from the far north of the state south of Brisbane -- which lies just across the Queensland border -- to east of Canberra, the country's federal capital. Fires in the Blue Mountain range west of Sydney are a particular worry as rough terrain has impeded firefighting efforts.

Anatomy of a bush fire: How Australia's explosive forest fires work

Helicopters circled Springwood, a Blue Mountains community under emergency alert status, dumping "tons and tons of water" as the flames neared homes, said CNN's Robyn Curnow.

"What we're seeing here is fires coming very, very close to residential properties," Curnow said. "There seems to be a sense of helplessness by some people as they are watching as these fires run out of control."

Scores of fires now have burned more than 126,000 hectares (311,000 acres) -- an area greater than the size of Los Angeles -- said RFS spokesman Andrew Luke.

'Eerie' skies over city of Sydney

Light rain overnight in some areas has done nothing to stop the main blazes, and in fact hampered "backburning" operations -- controlled fires begun by emergency crews to reduce potential tinder for the wildfires to expand. Helicopters in the region dropped not only water to extinguish fires, but incendiary devices on the tops of mountains to create preventive burns.

"These fires ran more than 30 kilometers in one day because it gets on top of a mountain, showers the next area with embers, starts new fires ahead of it," RFS Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers in New South Wales said Tuesday.

Tweets by @NSWRFS

The political blaze

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Australian radio that the U.N. head of climate change was "talking through her hat" when she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour there is "absolutely" a link between the fires spreading across Australia's most populous state and global warming.

"The World Meteorological Organization has not established a direct link between this wildfire and climate change -- yet," U.N. Climate Chief Christiana Figueres told Amanpour on Monday. "But what is absolutely clear is the science is telling us that there are increasing heat waves in Asia, Europe and Australia; that there, these will continue; that they will continue in their intensity and in their frequency."

Abbott said in an interview on 3AW radio in Melbourne on Wednesday that bush fires have had a long history in Australia. "The official in question is talking through her hat, if I may say so," Abbott said.

"Climate change is real, as I've often said, and we should take strong action against it, but these functions are certainly not a function of climate change, they're a function of life in Australia," Abbott said.

"We've had bad fires since almost the beginning of European settlement," he added. "It has been since humans were on the continent. The Aboriginal people managed the landscape through various forms of firestick farming."

CNN's Mick Krever and Jessica King contributed to this report.

 

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