Australia battles wildfires as new year brings record heatwave
· Sydney records highest temperature since 1939
· Buildings destroyed as fires burn out of control
Bernard O'Riordan in Sydney· Buildings destroyed as fires burn out of control
Monday January 2, 2006
Guardian
Sydney sweltered through its hottest New Year's Day on record yesterday as blowtorch conditions pushed the mercury to 44.2C (112F), causing power blackouts and sparking more than 40 bushfires along Australia's east coast. Homes and cars were destroyed, towns isolated and roads cut off as firestorms raged across parts of New South Wales, Victoria and the capital, Canberra. 
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At least 35 people were treated for heat exhaustion at Sydney's beaches and 100 people were rescued by lifeguards.
Five separate blazes burned out of control near Gosford, 50 miles north of Sydney, where at least three houses and seven cars were destroyed by fire. Six other homes were severely damaged.
Residents of the coastal town of Woy Woy and nearby Mount White were told to evacuate as two separate blazes joined to create a single front with 65ft flames, cutting the main freeway to Sydney and disrupting rail services. One local resident said the inferno was like a scene from hell. "Black smoke covering the sun, just scorching hot, 44 degrees. It's burning up here," he told ABC Radio.
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Peter Williams, a motorist caught by the blaze on the F3 motorway north of Sydney, said: "We went round one corner and there were a lot of flames just beside the road not too far away. We went around the next one and there was fire all across the road. It's very hot, very smoky."
The Australian Reptile Park at Somersby, a popular tourist attraction, was in the path of the fire as it burned through dense, dry bushland. Seven water-bombing aircraft and 30 tankers were used to fight the fires, which authorities said may have been deliberately lit.
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"Unfortunately it looks like we have had human intervention but whether that's accidental or deliberate remains to be seen," said Rebel Talbert from the Rural Fire Service.
Emergencies were also declared at Cootamundra and Junee in the Riverina fruit-growing region, where a farmer was taken to hospital after receiving burns to 60% of his body. Fires were also burning at Appin and Bulli, south-west of Sydney.
Lawrence Ryan, who owns a historic 1884 homestead in the Riverina, said a helicopter dropped four water bombs on his home just as flames reached its doorstep.
"We had buckets and hoses and a fuel pump in our swimming pool. We were just about to start losing valuable carriages and all sorts of things when the helicopter bomber came in and dumped four loads of water on us," he said.
The extreme heat was caused by north-westerly wind gusts moving from Australia's parched interior towards the coast.
The NSW weather bureau said yesterday's temperature was the highest recorded in Sydney on January 1. The previous hottest was in 1928, when the mercury reached 38C. Yesterday was also the second-hottest day ever in Australia's biggest city, which rarely experiences temperatures much higher than 30C. The hottest day was 45.3C in 1939.
Yesterday the temperature peaked at 44.2C in central Sydney at 4.30pm, while in outback New South Wales the temperature almost reached the half century, topping 47 degrees at Ivanhoe. A cool southerly change packing winds of 70mph reached Sydney around 9.30pm, and by midnight the temperature had dropped to 23C. But the winds brought down trees and power lines and fanned embers, making conditions hazardous for firefighters.
"The fires are going to be driven in a northerly direction now, our whole strategy has to change," said Phil Koperburg, the Rural Fire Service commissioner.
In Victoria, five houses and tens of thousands of pounds worth of crops, sheds and equipment were destroyed in a blaze at Stawell. About 22,000 acres of bushland were burnt out as 750 firefighters battled to contain a 19-mile fire front.
Fire crews were also on alert in Canberra where several small grassfires burned on the city's northern outskirts.
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