Wildfires in New South Wales have burned through vast areas of bushland, forcing authorities to issue top-level evacuation warnings as extreme heat intensified fire conditions across the state.
Wildfires in Australia’s New South Wales swept through thousands of hectares of bushland on Saturday, leading authorities to issue top-level evacuation warnings for thousands of residents in the country’s most populous state.
The alert was issued for the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy area on the state’s central coast, which has a population of more than 350,000 people and lies about 45 km north of Sydney.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that up to 16 homes were destroyed as fires moved across the region. “Leave now if the path is clear towards Woy Woy,” the state’s Rural Fire Service said on its website.
A heatwave pushed temperatures in New South Wales to 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, increasing fire danger in the area, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
“Please look out for each other and follow advice from authorities,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.
Authorities said over 50 bushfires were burning across the state late on Saturday, including one in the Upper Hunter region — also listed at the highest emergency rating — which had already burned almost 10,000 hectares.
Officials have cautioned that Australia faces a high-risk bushfire season this summer after several quieter years. The “Black Summer” fires of 2019–2020 destroyed an area the size of Turkey and caused 33 deaths.
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