by Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Hundreds of firefighters worked on Wednesday to contain dozens of fires fanned by strong winds in the state of New South Wales, in southeastern Australia.
More than 600 firefighters and emergency service personnel were battling 68 fires across New South Wales on Wednesday morning, the state fire service said, adding that 17 fires had yet to be cleared. been contained.
“With hot, dry and windy conditions forecast throughout the day, the Sydney region will experience extreme fire risk, while several other areas will experience high fire risk,” fire services said. fires.
Since the start of the Australian spring starting in September, heat records have been broken in the densely populated area around Sydney, the capital of the state of New South Wales.
Temperatures are expected to exceed 30 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, for the fifth consecutive day, before dropping back to around 20 degrees on Thursday.
After three years of heavy rain, Australia is bracing for a hot, dry spring and summer this year.
Authorities have indicated that this summer season could be the worst since the “black summer” of 2019-2020, during which fires ravaged an area equivalent to the size of Turkey and left 33 dead.
(Reporting Renju Jose in Sydney; French version Camille Raynaud)
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