Homes under threat as Australian wildfires blaze
Posted: 22 November 2009 1353 hrs

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SYDNEY: Hundreds of homes in eastern Australia were under threat from massive wildfires on Sunday as soaring temperatures and windy conditions fanned the out-of-control flames, officials said.

A bushfire emergency warning, the highest level of alert, has been issued for residents in the New South Wales towns of Rylstone, Kandos and Clandulla about 170 kilometres (105 miles) northwest of Sydney.

Firefighters fear a repeat of February's firestorm in southeastern Victoria state in which 173 people were killed as fires razed homes and trapped residents in the country's worst natural disaster of modern times.

John Parnaby, incident controller at a fire control centre near Kandos and Rylstone, urged any residents unprepared to deal with fire near their property to leave the area.

"They really should be leaving to find a safer place," he said. "Now would be the right time to go to a neighbouring town."

The Rylstone/Kandos fire has burned through some 1,200 hectares of bush and has now broken containment lines, despite the efforts of 170 firefighters aided by six helicopters and four planes.

Rylstone, a town which acts as a gateway to the World Heritage-listed Wollemi National Park west of Sydney's Blue Mountains, has a population of around 1200. Rylstone Hospital was evacuated as a precaution.

"People are scared and I think the horrific winds at the moment make people even more on edge," Kandos resident Bonnie Farrell told the ABC.

"I've been a bush girl all my life... this is the first time I've felt threatened as an adult, where I'm the one who had to make the decisions."

The fire may take up to three hours to reach the townships but the blaze could act erratically, the Rural Fire Services' Stuart O'Keefe said.

"High temperatures, low humidity and strong winds - what we've been saying for the last 24 hours, the potential for the fire to breach the containment lines has happened," he told ABC radio.

"Conditions out there are very difficult for all our firefighters at the moment."

As temperatures in Sydney reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), prompting thousands to flock to Bondi and surrounding beaches, about 1,000 firefighters were battling about 100 blazes across New South Wales state.

The weather bureau has issued a severe weather warning for potentially damaging winds, a condition which could fan bushfires but also bring down trees and damage homes in areas west of Sydney.

Firefighters have another blaze, on the outskirts of Gunnedah in northern New South Wales, under control, officials said.

While at Orange, west of Sydney, an emergency warning has been issued for some residents due to a grass fire.

- AFP/yb