A snapshot of fires burning across Australia

The east coast is battling an unprecedented fire season with NSW copping the worst of the 200 blazes across the country, which have killed seven people.

NSW Rural Fire Service crews fight the Gospers Mountain Fire as it impacts a property at Bilpin.

NSW Rural Fire Service crews fight the Gospers Mountain Fire as it impacts a property at Bilpin. Source: AAP

Snapshot of the nation's bushfire emergency:

* Almost 200 fires burning across the country

* Seven people have been killed

* More than 900 homes lost in this year's bushfire season: NSW - 789, Queensland - 40, South Australia - 72, Western Australia - one

* Thousands of outbuildings destroyed or damaged, stock and crops destroyed

* 2,000 koalas feared killed

New South Wales

* 110 fires, of which almost 60 are uncontained

* 2 volunteer firefighters, Geoff Keaton and Andrew O'Dwyer, killed as well as four others on the Mid-North Coast - Vivian Chaplain, 69, and George Nole, Julie Fletcher, 63, and an unnamed 58-year-old man
NSW Police watch as the Green Wattle Creek Fire threatens homes in Yandeera in the south west of Sydney.
NSW Police watch as the Green Wattle Creek Fire threatens homes in Yandeera in the south west of Sydney. Source: AAP
* 100 buildings destroyed over weekend alone

* Smoke continues to affect Sydney

* Fires:

- Huge Gospers Mountain blaze northwest of Sydney, areas hardest hit include Lithgow and along the Bells Line of Road in the upper Blue Mountains

- Green Wattle Creek fire southwest of the city, devastating Wollondilly Shire villages of Buxton and Bargo, and wiping out small town of Balmoral

- Currowan blaze on the South Coast, north of Batemans Bay, has hit communities near Nerriga

Victoria

* Two blazes still burning uncontrolled in Tambo Crossing in East Gippsland and Hotspur, Digby, in the Western District

* Bushfires in East Gippsland burning since Thursday
Fire crews attack flames from a fire burning at Mount Mercer.
Fire crews attack flames from a fire burning at Mount Mercer. Source: Twitter/@CFA_Updates/Wayne Rigg
* Cooler conditions have given firefighters a reprieve

* Smoke from the fires and from NSW expected to make air quality hazardous

South Australia

* Huge fire burning in Adelaide Hills

* One killed (Ron Selth, 69), three more in hospital with burns

* 25,000 hectares burnt within a 127km perimeter
* 72 homes confirmed lost along with 404 other buildings and 227 vehicles over the weekend

* Significant losses to crops, including vineyards, and hundreds of sheep killed

* Most concern centred on difficult terrain around the Kangaroo Creek Reservoir at Castambul

QUEENSLAND

* About 60 fires burning within containment lines across the state

* Severe fire conditions in the Central Highlands and Coalfields and Upper Flinders region in central Queensland
* Cooler conditions, some rain expected around Christmas Eve

* Smoke haze from NSW fires

Western Australia

* Lives and homes were threatened by bushfires in Perth's Hills region around Roleystone in the city's southeast and a massive blaze at Yanchep, north of Perth, last week before being downgraded

* Firefighters battled heatwave conditions for much of the six-day fire, saving thousands of properties

* One house and a Yanchep petrol station were destroyed; about 13,000 hectares were burnt

Tasmania

* Two bushfires north of Launceston were brought under control at the end of November

Northern Territory

* NT last saw major fires in September when there were nine active fire grounds.


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3 min read
Published 23 December 2019 6:16am
Updated 23 December 2019 7:01am



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