Copyright 2001 Associated Press
December 27, 2001
By Peter O'Connor, Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia — Up to 3,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as fires raged throughout Australia's largest state on Wednesday, ringing the capital Sydney and threatening outer suburbs.

As the number of fires jumped from about 70 on Christmas day to 100 Wednesday, fire authorities worked with police to investigate seven cases of suspected arson.

Winds of 60 kph (35 mph) fanned the infernos, which have destroyed homes, isolated towns, and cut highways and rail links across the state of New South Wales (N.S.W.) and around Sydney.

As of Wednesday night, there were only reported fatalities from the ongoing inferno.

Other state governments have offered to fly in fire crews while hundreds of firefighters from neighboring Victoria state joined almost 5,000 N.S.W. emergency workers, hundreds of whom have been battling fires for five days.

Authorities have deployed 46 aircraft for water bombing and surveillance, including five helicopters from the Department of Defense. Prime Minister John Howard pledged army resources after touring fire-ravaged areas around Sydney.

New South Wales fire chief Phil Koperberg credited firefighters with saving thousands of threatened properties, noting that only 140 homes have so far been destroyed.

Ambulance crews estimated they had treated hundreds of firefighters and residents for smoke inhalation and breathing difficulties.

Dry conditions, winds gusting up to 90 kph (55 mph), and temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) left emergency workers helpless to contain the blazes that were spreading at unprecedented speeds. "We have never seen anything like that before," said Koperberg. Crews were mostly no longer trying to contain fires but concentrating on saving lives and property.

A grimy-yellow haze shrouded the central city from firestorms threatening outer suburbs only 20 kilometers away. State Emergency Services Minister Bob Debus warned that simmering hotspots around the perimeter could flare up at any moment.

A Wednesday afternoon firestorm leapt the Nepean River, menacing the dense residential areas of Baulkham Hills shire in Sydney's northwest.

In the western suburbs of Silverdale and Warragamba, 30 homes and a shopping center were destroyed by another blaze. "Everything's burnt around us; there's nothing left to burn," said Silverdale resident Sandra Rodgers, whose untouched home now stands in a blackened wasteland. "It's just absolutely devastating."

To the city's south, the world's second oldest national park was being razed by a fire burning along a 10-kilometer (six-mile) -wide front that was estimated to have burned more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres).

Two villages on the fringes of the Royal National Park and Sydney's southern waterways were also under threat. Firefighters hoped a late afternoon easing in the winds would allow them to burn containment lines overnight. Residents in endangered areas were being told to hose down and fireproof their homes, stay indoors, and await possible evacuation.

The southern front of the same fire also threatened the outer suburbs of the city of Wollongong, 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Sydney.

Overnight it had hit coastal areas 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Sydney on the park's southern fringe around the town of Helensburgh, where about 1,500 people were evacuated along with most of the suburb of Waterfall.

About 12,000 homes remained without power and many without running water. Health authorities issued warnings to residents in many southern suburbs to boil their water after power failures stopped water filtration systems.

By evening, winds and temperatures had eased in many areas around the state, providing hope that fires may calm overnight. However, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts temperatures to soar to around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions by the end of the week.

"We expect this campaign to go for four to five days but perhaps ten days or thereabouts at worst," Koperberg said. Error: Unable to read footer file.