Firefighters are eagerly awaiting a cold change as high temperatures and strong winds hit the east coast.
An emergency services worker amongst burnt bushland at Coles Bay in Tasmania. abc.net.au/news/australia-september-heatwave-fires-weather-qld-nsw-tasmania/102878256A burst of extreme heat has put authorities on high alert along large stretches of Australia's eastern coastlines, with firefighters working to contain blazes from Queensland to Tasmania.
Almost 700 firefighters and 30 water-bombing planes and helicopters are being used to battle the blazes. "We have seen these temperature records that have been broken, we have seen the weather bureau formalise the announcement around El Niño," he said. "It's September we're already experiencing four days in a row are temperatures above 30 degrees with high winds," he said.Bondi lifeguard Bruce Hopkins told ABC Radio Sydney that many beachgoers had hit the sand at 6am to get ahead of the heat."The crowds were well over 20,000 on the weekend and summer has come a bit earlier for us."Beaches in Newcastle have been busy as people try to escape the hot and windy conditions.
The vegetation fire burnt over 600 hectares since Tuesday afternoon, damaging Telstra and power infrastructure, and causing the evacuation of the Friendly Beaches camping area. It was the first time in his memory that Tasmania had seen an emergency bushfire warning in September.BOM forecasts conditions will ease in the next few days, before temperatures are expected to reach well above average on Sunday and into next week."It's just a good example of how reliant we are on power, and on media, and the [phone] towers. If it really got bad, it could have been a horrible, horrible situation," she said.
A combination of aircraft units and ground crews from Queensland's RFS and Fire and Rescue Service have been dispatched to contain the fires.
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