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The strong winds fanned a 126-kilometer perimeter wildfire burning uncontrollably near the city of Perth, in southwestern Australia, threatening the homes of residents of neighboring areas, regional authorities alerted on Thursday.
The fire in the Perth Hills, about 100 kilometers northeast of Perth, started on Monday and has since the flames have already burned 81 homes and more than 10,000 hectares of land.
The strong winds, which are forecast to have an intensity of up to 70 kilometers per hour in the area of the fires, have forced the authorities to maintain several emergency alerts because their flames “threaten lives and houses” in the area. according to the chief executive of the state of Western Australia, Mark McGowan.
“These fires are highly unpredictable and things can get worse quickly. The weather conditions are volatile, ”McGowan remarked at a press conference in Perth broadcast by local network ABC.
The strong winds, forecast until Saturday, have forced some of the firefighters’ planes to stay on the ground, so the fight from the air is limited to three large tanker planes that spray a retardant chemical, as explained by the commissioner of the regional emergency service, Darren Klemm.
On the ground, some 260 firefighters continue to fight the flames, burning near Perth, Australia’s fourth most populous city, waiting for rain over the weekend.
This is the first large fire this year in Australia, which was the scene of the so-called “black summer” fires, which burned between September 2019 and March 2020 and are considered among the longest and most intense in the country.
Those fires killed 38 people, devastated more than 18.6 million hectares and more than 3,500 houses, in addition to causing some 3 billion animals, including koalas, to be killed in the flames or by predators, injured or displaced.
The fire season in Australia varies according to the area and the weather conditions, although they generally occur in the austral summer (between the months of December to March).
The worst fires in the oceanic country in recent decades occurred at the beginning of February 2009 in the state of Victoria (southeast) and caused 173 deaths and 414 injuries, while calcining an area of 4,500 square kilometers.
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