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Three people were unaccounted for as out-of-control bushfires raged in the Australian state of Victoria, destroying homes and burning through vast swathes of bushland, authorities said on Friday.
Damaging winds and temperatures up to 46 C were forecast for Victoria’s north.
Victoria Premier Jacinda Allen said it was “one of the most dangerous fire days that this state has experienced in years.”
A blaze near the town of Longwood has burned through more than 35,000 hectares of bushland, while a blaze near Walwa has grown to around 20,000 hectares.
Both started on Wednesday amid an intense summer heatwave in Australia’s south.
Meteorologists have said conditions are on par with 2019, when bushfires destroyed wide swathes of southeastern Australia, killing 33 people, in what became known as the Black Summer.
From the front lines of Australia’s unprecedented wildfire crisis, Australia’s Black Summer tells the stories of those trapped in the worst forest fire season in history. The videos stunned the world – images capturing the sheer ferocity of the wildfires – but who filmed them and how did their stories end?
An analysis released Tuesday by Climate Central shows human-caused climate change made the heat at least two to five times more likely in many regions of Australia.
‘Catastrophic’ fire danger
Friday’s fire danger rating was set at “catastrophic,” the highest level, and both Longwood and Walwa fires pose a real risk of loss of life and property, authorities said.
The Walwa fire has created its own weather system, with a pyrocumulonimbus cloud causing lightning and thunder.
Premier Allen said that has made existing fire conditions more extreme “with the fires themselves creating additional weather, lightning starting new fires in a number of locations across the state and also with strong winds and with more strong winds predicted to come over the course of today.”
Residents in dozens of neighbouring towns have been told to evacuate.
Some 450 schools in Victoria were closed on Friday and many regional train services were cancelled.
A total fire ban was imposed across the whole state on Friday.
In New Zealand, the country’s weather provider, MetService, also warned of record warm temperatures over the weekend as the heatwave moves across the Tasman Sea.
It has issued heat alerts for parts of the eastern coast of New Zealand and the north of the South Island.
