SYDNEY • Firefighters battled 25 blazes across the Australian state of Victoria yesterday as a record-breaking heatwave delivered the hottest start to March on record for the southern third of the country.
Australia is prone to deadly blazes due to its combination of remote terrain, high summer temperatures and flammable eucalyptus bush.
A severe four-day heatwave has brought fire weather across the southern parts of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania over the weekend.
The south-eastern state of Victoria was the worst hit, with more than 2,000 firefighters, water-bombing aircraft and volunteers battling blazes yesterday.
A cool change was forecast for late yesterday, but an associated wind change would bring danger for firefighters.
"It's a dangerous time, putting it bluntly," Victoria's emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp said in a televised emergency briefing. "Not just for communities but also for firefighters."
In 2009, the worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria, killing 173 people and injuring 414 on a day the media dubbed "Black Saturday".
The largest fire in Bunyip State Park was sparked by multiple lightning strikes last Friday. Rural townships were evacuated with no reported injuries or deaths, but three homes and several properties had been destroyed by noon yesterday.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the heatwave, defined as three consecutive days and nights of above-average temperatures, had broken more than a century of records. "It's broken heat records for March in four states along the southern coastline," meteorologist Dean Narramore told Reuters.
Temperatures in Tasmania, Australia's southernmost state, reached 39.1 deg C on Saturday, the hottest in 131 years of records.
Australia's hottest summer on record is causing several industries to wilt, including the US$4.4 billion (S$6 billion) wine industry with grape yields set to drop to the lowest in years. Drought has also damaged the winter wheat crop and is expected to drag the wool clip to a record low.
The Pacific nation had its third-warmest year on record last year, marked by severe drought in parts of the country and a prolonged bushfire season. Australia continued the trend into this year with its hottest January on record.
REUTERS
