Sydney under threat from bush fires

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.

With strong, hot winds blowing out of the drought-stricken Outback west of Sydney forecast to continue tomorrow, Australia’s most populous city was bracing for more devastation.

“All of the fires at the moment have got the potential to endanger property,” said New South Wales state Rural Fire Service superintendent John Hojel. “Wherever it is going to go tonight and tomorrow, property is going to be under threat.”

Late today, 1,100 firefighters were battling 39 fires covering more than 127,256 acres around the state.

Three firefighters were injured tackling the blazes – two with fractured legs and another with hand lacerations.

Most of the fires erupted mid-afternoon, with the worst blazes in Sydney’s north-western suburb of Glenorie and in Wattle Grove and Heathcote in the city’s south-west.

“We’ve got major problems all over Sydney,” said Rural Fire Service commissioner Phil Koperberg.

There was no immediate word on how so many fires started in such a short time, but emergency services believed some were deliberately lit.

“We’ve really got to attribute these fires to some sort of human action ... whether that be deliberate or accidental,” said service spokesman John Winter.

Several homes were destroyed by flames leaping 200 feet in the air and causing oil-filled eucalyptus trees to explode, Winter said.

Flames engulfed 15 homes in Glenorie and another five near Nowra, 75 miles south of the city. At least one home was destroyed in Wattle Grove.

About 200 school children were evacuated from a camp site in northern Sydney as flames approached. None was injured. Hundreds more people across the city fled their homes as flames bore down on them.

In at least one suburb, residents formed a human chain, passing buckets of water to one another, to fight flames.

One man said he was hosing down his own home in southern Sydney when he saw flames spread to the leaves on the roof of a neighbour’s house.

“I jumped up onto the roof and I had a stick, got all the flames out as much as I could,” said Greg Young. ”While that was happening all the neighbours grabbed buckets of water because he didn’t have a hose and they were throwing water all over it.”

Dozens of fire crews, many of them volunteers, fanned out across the city. Water-dumping helicopters and planes took to the air, but others were grounded by high winds.

Late today, high temperatures and strong winds were still combining to make fire fighting virtually impossible.

“It’s going to be a long night for us. We’re not expecting the wind to abate at all,” Winter said. “That’s going to give us very little opportunity to contain these fires ... crews will concentrate on protecting homes.”

Temperatures in western Sydney reached 36C (97F) this afternoon and the city of four million is in the grip of one of the worst droughts in memory.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, two plumes of thick smoke – one to the north and one to the south – drifted eastward across much of Sydney, forcing some road closures due to reduced visibility.

A year ago, fires – many deliberately lit by children on school holiday - ringed Sydney over the Christmas period, destroying dozens of homes. No human lives were lost, but wildlife officials estimate thousands of native animals, such as koalas, were killed or injured.