A severe heatwave in southeastern Australia has fueled bushfires, forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents from rural towns and brought record temperatures, with the city of Melbourne recording its hottest day in almost 17 years.
In some areas of Melbourne, capital of Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, temperatures exceeded 45 degrees Celsius.
Towns in Victoria’s northwest Mallee region also reached a high of 48.9°C, breaking the state record, according to preliminary data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
The heatwave — the worst since the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, which killed 173 people in Victoria — has raised the fire risk in some parts of the state to extreme levels.
Many communities are still recovering from those at the beginning of the month, also triggered by a strong heat wave.
Victoria Fire Chief Chris Hardman said six large fires were active, with three of them out of control.
According to him, a fast-spreading fire in the Otways region was what worried firefighters most, having burned around ten thousand hectares and destroyed at least three properties.
“Firefighters did an incredible job trying to contain the fire overnight… but with the arrival of warmer weather and the end of the thermal inversion, strong gusts of wind intensified and the fire spread beyond the original containment lines,” he said at a press conference.
Hardman warned that strong winds of up to 70 km/h predicted for the evening could further spread the flames, threatening homes.
“We will have a strong change in wind direction, going south-southwest,” he said. “The fire will spread, develop a column of smoke, gain a lot of energy and we will see erratic and extreme flame behavior.”
Emergency services knocked on the doors of around 1,100 homes and sent text messages to around 10,000 cellphones asking residents to leave the area, Heffernan said.
Total fire bans were enacted across the state of Victoria as authorities tried to reduce the risk of new fires.
Organizers of the Australian Open tennis in Melbourne said matches on outdoor courts and the closure of roofs would follow protocols for extreme heat conditions.
Wheelchair tennis matches have been postponed until Wednesday (28).
In the interior of the state of Victoria, temperatures in some rural towns broke local records. Hopetoun Airport and Walpeup in the Mallee region, about 477km northwest of Melbourne, reached 48.9C, the highest temperature ever recorded in the state.
Nathan Grayling, a butcher in the town of Ouyen, told ABC Radio he would try to keep his establishment as dark and cool as possible as most residents are expected to stay at home.
“If we can get everything done, maybe we’ll leave early and go to the local bar for a beer,” Grayling said.
