Aerial view of bushfires burning south of Canberra, Australia, on 31 January 2020. Photo: Getty Images
Aerial view of bushfires burning south of Canberra, Australia, on 31 January 2020. Photo: Getty Images

By Will Ziebell
1 February 2020

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Soaring temperatures and strong winds stoked unpredictable bushfires near Australia’s capital city on Saturday, closing a major highway and prompting warnings for some residents that it was too late to evacuate.

Skies along the Monaro Highway in the Australian Capital Territory turned orange-red as an uncontrolled blaze ballooned to more than 35,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in size.

“The issue we have with the fire activity is that the fire itself is generating its own weather pattern and that, combined with the wind direction, is what is driving that intensity in the fire,” ACT Emergency Services Agency Commissioner Georgeina Whelan said in a televised briefing in Canberra.

Aerial images reveal fire threats near Australia’s capital, Canberra, 1 February 2020. Video: NSW Rural Fire Service / Reuters

The territory, home to the country’s capital, Canberra, declared a state of emergency on Friday in anticipation of the severely hot and windy conditions that are expected to last through the weekend. It is the area’s first declared emergency since 2003 when four people were killed and almost 500 homes destroyed in wildfires.

A second major uncontrolled fire was burning slightly further south in the Snowy Monaro region of New South Wales state, the same alpine area where an air tanker crashed on Jan. 22 killing three American firefighters.

Temperatures were forecast to top 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several parts of both NSW and the ACT on Saturday, prompting widespread warnings for people to be alert to the potential fire danger. [more]

Australia’s capital braces as hot, windy conditions fuel bushfires