Australian fires burn homes, threaten city

Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia – Brush fires, many set by arsonists, raged as close as 12 miles to Sydney on Friday after flames 20 feet high consumed more than a hundred outlying homes.

Fire officials also warned that hot, dry, windy weather over the next few days could trigger a second wave of destruction along the 370-mile-wide fire front surrounding the city.

On Friday, helicopters dropped water on hot spots and more than 15,000 firefighters, including volunteers from around Australia, carved firebreaks through bush land.

Emergency controllers also mapped the rapidly moving fires with satellite imaging and infrared technologies.

“With the majority of fire unconfined and very little prospect of containment in the immediate future, we are looking at four very difficult days,” said Phil Koperberg, the state’s top firefighter. “I do urge a very high level of calm during the next four or five days.”

A blanket of thick haze hung over Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, as dozens of fires burned around its perimeter. Cars on the street were sprinkled with ash and the air smelled of smoke.

About 150 homes were destroyed by more than 100 fires burning across New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.

More than 4,400 people have been evacuated and thousands of acres of forest and farmland blackened. Insurance officials estimate damages at $25.4 million, so far.

There have been no human fatalities or serious injuries, said Koperberg, who heads the Rural Fire Service.

But thousands of animals – including birds, koalas and kangaroos – probably have died, wildlife officials said. Dozens of others have been rescued by firefighters and residents and sent to wildlife refuges.

Three teen-age boys and two men have been arrested for allegedly starting a number of blazes. Other arsonists remain at large, police said.

Many of the fires are raging across national parks.

Almost 80 percent of the Royal National Park, the second-oldest national park in the world after Yellowstone in the United States, has been burned. Big fires were also reported in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

“A lot of (wildlife) communities may scrape through, but there’ll be some that will suffer,” said National Parks and Wildlife Service director-general Brian Gilligan.

Australian fire officials were considering offers of assistance from two U.S.-based groups – the International Association of Fire Chiefs in Fairfax, Va., and the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass.

On the fire-razed western outskirts of Australia’s largest city, Peter Philbrook sifted through charred bricks and broken glass, hoping to salvage something from 22 years of memories.

In the tiny town of Warrimoo, some 45 miles west of Sydney, a wall of fire Wednesday swept up a valley behind Philbrook’s three-bedroom home, engulfing it in 45 minutes.

“I watched my house disintegrate,” Philbrook said.

All he could find to save Friday were a couple of ceramic pots.