Firefighters battling wildfires in Australia are braced for conditions to get worse in the coming days, with high temperatures and strong winds expected to intensify the danger.

One man was killed, scores of homes were destroyed and hundreds of people were forced to evacuate as almost 100 wildfires burned across Australia’s most populous state today.

AN ultra-light plane crashed into a Ferris wheel at a rural festival in eastern Australia on Saturday, trapping two children on the ride and two adults in the aircraft for hours. There were no serious injuries.

More than 120 wildfires were burning in one Australian state today and forecasters warned of severe danger in another as temperatures and winds increased across parts of the south.

Wildfires destroyed eight houses and cut electricity lines in southern Australia, plunging much of Victoria state into chaos as hundreds of thousands were left without power, a fire official said today.

Several homes on Sydney’s outskirts were burned in a wild forest fire today, as soaring temperatures and blustery winds gave Australia an early start to its annual wild fire season.

Walls of flames 100ft high swept through parched eucalyptus forests and destroyed at least three homes as several fires raged out of control north of Sydney today.

THERE is certainly something biblical, if not apocalyptic, about the current global extremes of fire and ice.

Australia’s worst bush fires in a generation raged out of control around Sydney today, claiming the life of a second elderly man as winds pushed the towering flames closer to the city’s affluent northern suburbs.

Powerful fireballs destroyed homes and cars on the outskirts of Sydney today as 3,000 firefighters battled the advancing flames.

Hundreds of firefighters battled into the night as bush fires raged out of control through tinder-dry suburban bushland around Sydney’s fringes, destroying at least 20 homes.

Up to 10 homes and businesses were reportedly destroyed by a wildfire south-west of Sydney today as strong winds and dry conditions fed bush blazes across the region.

Hundreds of firefighters today battled about 70 blazes across Australia’s most populous state, as the flames were fed by strong winds and unusually warm spring weather.