‘There’s not much left’
Firefighters battling wildfires in Australia made the most of cooler weather yesterday to access badly burnt towns and contain blazes before the expected return of hotter conditions at the end of the week.
The reprieve came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended both his government’s climate change policies and his decision to go on holiday to Hawaii last week.
The leader of New South Wales (NSW), Gladys Berejiklian, said “catastrophic” fire conditions on Saturday in parts of the prime minister’s home state had destroyed communities.
“We’ve got the devastating news there’s not much left in the town of Balmoral,” Berejiklian told journalists.
Balmoral is about 120 kilometres south west of Sydney. No fatalities were reported.
Morrison visited the Rural Fire Service (RFS) headquarters in Sydney after returning on Saturday night from Hawaii.
Morrison addressed his conservative Liberal-National coalition’s climate policies yesterday, which his government has been forced to defend following the severity of this year’s bushfires.
Morrison said there was no argument that there is a link between climate change and weather events around the world but said it was not credible to make a direct connection to any single fire event and climate change.
Nearly 100 fires were still burning across NSW late yesterday afternoon, though none were rated as emergencies.
Conditions are expected to remain favourable over coming days allowing firefighters to work to contain fires.
But authorities stated that large fires would continue to burn across NSW without significant rainfall, which is not forecast for four to six weeks.
Australia has been fighting wildfires for months as hot, dry conditions brought about an early start to the fire season, with blazes destroying more than 800 homes and close to 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of bushland. At least 10 people were killed.
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