One person has died and 300 properties have been destroyed in bushfires sweeping across southeastern Australia.
For days, fires have raged in dozens of locations across the country, mostly in Victoria but also in New South Wales, burning land almost twice the size of greater London.
Victoria has declared a state of emergency, with thousands of firefighters and more than 70 aircraft battling the blazes. Residents in more than a dozen communities were advised to leave their homes.
Authorities fear the fires could continue for weeks due to very hot, dry and windy weather conditions.
On January 9, a forest burned in Longwood, Victoria, Australia. [AAP/Michael Currie via REUTERS]
Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan said 30 fires were currently burning in the state, 10 of which were of particular concern.
She said 350,000 hectares of land had burned across the state as of 08:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).
“We’re going to see fires going on across the state for some time, which is why we’re far from experiencing the worst of it,” she told Australian media.
“The fire is still continuing and threatening homes and property.”
Police said human remains were found in the village of Goble near the town of Longwood, about 110 kilometers (70 square miles) north of the state capital Melbourne. The victim has not yet been identified.
Allen praised first responders who worked to recover the body. “This is a difficult and challenging job that comes with a heavy price tag.”
“The Goble community is grieving,” she said.
Bushfire smoke is affecting air quality in many parts of Victoria, including metropolitan Melbourne.
Authorities said they were the worst fires to hit southeast Australia since the 2019-20 fires that destroyed an area the size of Türkiye and killed 33 people.
Firefighter Tyrone Rice says losing his home in Harcourt fire is ‘a crushing blow’ [Reuters]
One of the worst-affected places was the small town of Harcourt in Victoria’s Central Highlands, where firefighter Tyrone Rice lost his home in the blaze. He was outside fighting one of the bushfires when he learned it was on fire.
He told Australian media it was “like a punch in the gut, but I’m not the first person to go through this and I won’t be the last”.
Local fire chief Andrew Wilson said the damage in Harcourt was “heartbreaking”.
Jack Ward, a reporter for Australia’s Channel 9 news channel, told BBC News he had inspected the damage in several Western Australian towns.
He said what he saw was “catastrophic” and that in many places “these houses were just tin roofs lying on the ground”.
While it’s difficult to link individual wildfires to climate change because the way humans manage land may be a factor, scientists say climate change is making hot, dry weather conditions conducive to bushfires more common.