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SYDNEY: Southeastern Australia faced heatwave chaos on Friday, as some of the hottest temperatures in a century stretched emergency, power and transport services to breaking point.
Scores of train services were cut and tens of thousands of homes were without power in the southern states of Victoria and South Australia, as the mercury topped 43 degrees Celsius for a third consecutive day.
"It is an extreme week. The system is not made to operate where you've got temperatures in the suburbs of 46 degrees Celsius," said Victoria's leader, John Brumby.
The record temperatures - Victoria's hottest three days since records began - caused rail lines to buckle and forced the cancellation of some 90 services.
All train travel in the state was free to make up for the axing of almost 500 train services due to the heat on Thursday.
Searing temperatures also placed the electricity grid under acute strain.
More than 150,000 homes were blacked out in Victoria and South Australia on Thursday as record consumption brought a reserve offshore supply of electricity from the island state of Tasmania to its knees, the national power regulator said.
Ambulance Victoria experienced a 52 per cent surge in demand, treating more than 1,300 people on Thursday, while paramedics in South Australia reported a 15 per cent increase in patient numbers this week.
Adelaide, South Australia's capital, is preparing for its longest hot spell since 1908, with forecasters tipping temperatures above 38 degrees for the next seven days. It recorded its hottest ever night on Thursday - a sweltering minimum of 34 degrees.
Wildfires were raging across the region, with blazes destroying 2,000 hectares of forest, grassland and pine plantations.
- AFP/yb
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