Sydney, Dec 6 (IANS) New South Wales Rural Fire Services (NSW RFS), the lead combat agency for bush fires in the Australian state of NSW, declared on Saturday morning that a total fire ban is in place for the Greater Sydney Region and eight other areas for the day.
"Today, hot, dry and windy conditions are forecast across most of the state, with areas of Extreme and High fire danger," said the authority in a Facebook post, adding that 57 fires were burning across NSW as of 9 a.m. local time on Saturday, with nine yet to be contained.
NSW RFS said that firefighters and incident management personnel were continuing their work to strengthen containment lines around these fires. It asked people in the vicinity of these fires to continue monitoring conditions and stay up to date with the latest information via the mobile phone app and its website, Xinhua news agency reported.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the first heatwave of this summer will reach its peak across NSW, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius likely to span from Western Australia's north-west all the way to Parramatta in the Greater Sydney Region.
Intense heatwave conditions continue to grip NSW, affecting large areas across the eastern part of the state from the Hunter region down to the south coast.
In Tasmania, a fast-moving blaze at Dolphin Sands on the east coast left more than a dozen houses, sheds, and vehicles damaged on Friday, and two firefighters were injured while working to contain it.
Fire crews in the state are still looking into what sparked the incident as they use both aircraft and ground teams to bring the fire under control. The blaze has already scorched over 700 hectares.
Although the fire remains at watch-and-act status, the Tasmania Fire Service is advising residents to stay away from the area.
However, a change in weather is on the way, with cooler conditions and scattered showers expected across the state on Saturday, offering much-needed relief for firefighters.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, temperatures in NSW will remain unusually high on Saturday, with Sydney forecast to reach 37 degrees Celsius and parts of the western suburbs climbing into the low 40s.
On Friday evening, improved weather helped firefighters gain control of several blazes, allowing authorities to downgrade an emergency alert for residents near Beni Road, just outside Dubbo, as well as the bushfire at Bulahdelah on the mid-north coast.
Large areas of NSW — including inland regions, northern and eastern zones, Sydney, and the Illawarra — will be under total fire bans on Saturday.
--IANS
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