Advertisement
Australia fires merge into one massive blaze, threatening Sydney
- Ten separate bush fires 50km north of Sydney have joined and are too big to be put out, New South Wales firefighters say
- Australia has been battling wildfires for the last month, blamed on an extended drought, strong wind and arson
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

Bush fires fanned by winds combined into a single giant blaze north of Sydney late on Friday, blanketing Australia’s biggest city in hazardous smoke, causing weekend sports games to be cancelled and prompting calls for outdoor workers to stay home.
Fires have killed at least four people and destroyed more than 680 homes across eastern Australia since the start of November, months earlier than the usual summer bush fire season, with the authorities blaming an extended drought, strong wind and suspected arson.
Smoke and flying ash has lingered over Sydney for most of the past week, turning the daytime sky orange, obscuring visibility and prompting commuters to wear breathing masks. Satellite images spread on social media showed the smoke spreading across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, 2,000km (1,240 miles) away.

“The massive #NSW fires are in some cases just too big to put out at the moment,” wrote the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in a post on its official Twitter account.
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) said in a tweet that “a number of fires in the Hawkesbury, Hunter and Central Coast areas have now joined”. The tweet included a map showing 10 separate fires connecting about 50km north of metropolitan Sydney.
Advertisement