Hundreds of NSW homes may have been lost to worst bushfires in living memory
More than 90 fires are burning, mostly uncontained, around the state of New South Wales (NSW) fanned by high winds and soaring temperatures, said a report.
Authorities have issued emergency warnings for multiple location across the state.
Wildfires have destroyed at least 30 homes at Springwood, in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, prompting evacuations, “blanketing Australia’s biggest city in choking yellow smoke and closing highways,” said a report.
“The airport at Newcastle, 160 km (100 miles) north of Sydney, was closed and schools, workplaces and entire neighborhoods were evacuated.”
“If we get through with less than 100 homes destroyed today, we have been lucky,” the NWS Rural Fire Service Commissioner (RFS) told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
A massive, 300-hectare bushfire is raging out of control this afternoon threatening the GlencoreXstrata’s Mangoola coal mine, said a report, prompting RFS to issue an emergency warning for the Blackjack Mountain fire, West of Musswellbrook near Wybong Road.
Power was cut to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in multiple areas, especially the Blue Mountains, as well as other areas west, southwest and north of Sydney, said reports.
Sydney sky described as “apocalyptic”
Clouds of smoke have enveloped Sydney, turning the sky and the harbor orange, with smoke particles raining over Australia’s most populous city in scenes described as “apocalyptic.”
Fire Earth 