Authorities are investigating several "suspicious" blazes in Sydney, as early estimates revealed 50 homes were damaged or destroyed during yesterday's bushfire crisis.
Firefighters defend a property from a bushfire at Hillville near Taree, 350km north of Sydney, on 12 November, 2019. Photo: Peter Parks / AFP
NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said investigators were treating several fires as "suspicious", including two in Turramurra and one at Loftus, in Sydney's south.
"It's awful. It angers every firefighter and angers everybody in the community and our frustration," he said.
"Clearly we are looking at those as suspicious, particularly the one in Loftus were there were multiple ignition points in the Royal National Park there."
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said anyone who deliberately lit a fire yesterday would face the "full force of the law" and that the punishment for arson exceeded 10 years in prison.
Photo: AFP
The RFS said at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed in blazes around the state yesterday.
It brings the total number of homes affected by fires in NSW over the past week to more than 200.
Authorities said at least 21 people were injured in yesterday's fire, including 13 firefighters.
"Early estimates are just as a result of yesterday's fire spread and fire activity," RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
"We could be seeing in the order of another 50 homes damaged or destroyed as a result of those fires spreading across the landscape."
Early on Wednesday morning, actor Russell Crowe tweeted that he was not in Australia when the Nana Glen fire broke out, but confirmed the blaze had hit his property there.
The RFS issued emergency warnings for more than a dozen blazes yesterday, including several near Sydney.
The estimates of the damage comes as a prominent bushfire expert warned residents should brace for more days of potentially catastrophic bushfire risks in the coming weeks.
"It ain't over, it's as simple as that," said Ross Bradstock, the director of the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires at the University of Wollongong.
"It looks like we're locked in this pattern at the moment of no rain and one or two major cold fronts a week."
Queensland fires. Photo: Facebook / Jimna fire / QEFS
The fronts bring hot, gusty conditions in front of them, elevating the risk of fires breaking out or spreading.
"We're probably in for a few more really bad days," Professor Bradstock said.
Commissioner Fitzsimmons said fire conditions were not expected to significantly improve any time soon.
"Unless we get some rain, we're talking months before we can get any confidence in having consolidation and containment of these fires, and unfortunately the forecast is for nothing but above-average temperatures, below-average rainfall for the new few months, and we've still got summer around the corner," he said.
The fire danger ratings for Sydney, the Illawarra and Hunter regions have dropped to "very high".
The mercury on Friday is forecast to climb back to 30 degrees Celsius, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
After a chance of a shower on Sunday, next Tuesday is also set to be dry and hot, reaching 30C.
Authorities fear a repeat of multiple emergency-level fires, the kind that continue to burn throughout the state's north and flared in Turramurra on Sydney's Upper North Shore on Tuesday afternoon.
Here's how the morning unfolded:
- ABC