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Rain falls on some NSW, Victorian and South Australian bushfire-affected areas, but worse fire conditions are forecast to return. Follow all today’s latest news and live updates
Andrew Crisp:
Speaking with the incident controller here at Bairnsdale a short time ago, some of our concern is the fires up in the alpine area, around Omeo, and the potential for them to travel south with the northerly and join the fires down in this part of the world.
We saw, only a few days ago, where there were more than 300 people on the oval at Omeo where some helicopters were there to take people out.
The Victorian emergency commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has an update:
There are three communities we haven’t been able to drive in. When I say ‘drive’ even with those other communities it is basically bushtracks and emergency vehicles to get in, it is where there is no real road access.
We’ve been able to get helicopters and sat phones in to make sure people have supplies.
In Good Morning Britain appearance Australian Liberal MP accuses other politicians of trying to exploit tragedy
The Conservative Liberal MP Craig Kelly – a renowned critic of climate change action – has sparked a storm of controversy and been lambasted as a “denier” and “disgraceful” after telling UK television that there was no link between climate change and Australia’s bushfire crisis.
In a combative television interview with the conservative British commentator Piers Morgan and the meteorologist Laura Tobin, Kelly defended his view that climate change was not driving the bushfire crisis that has so far claimed 25 lives and almost 2,000 homes.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews declares state of disaster for East Gippsland, urging people to flee bushfire zones, while Scott Morrison is abused by fire victims in Cobargo. Follow today’s live news and latest updates
Pity the poor #Australians, their country ablaze, and their rotten @ScottMorrisonMP saying, “This is not the time to talk about Climate Change. We have to grow our economy.” What an idiot. What good is an economy in an uninhabitable country? Lead, you fuckwit!!
Greg Mullins says he has never seen a bushfire situation this serious. He was in Batemans Bay on New Year’s Eve in charge of an RFS crew and, “I’m still shocked.”
This is what 29 other fire and emergency chiefs, former chiefs, and I, tried to warn the prime minister about back in April and May. And we weren’t listened to.
Bureau of Meteorology data shows average temperature record across the country beat previous high of 2013
The year 2019 was the hottest on record for Australia with the temperature reaching 1.52C above the long-term average, data from the Bureau of Meteorology confirms.
The year that delivered crippling drought, heatwaves, temperature records and devastating bushfires was 0.19C hotter than 2013, the previous record holder.
Yep - locals on the ground told @abccanberra Drive this evening that about 50 of 60 homes in North Rosedale are gone. About a third of the homes in South Rosedale. Unconfirmed, but solid local sources. One of the prettiest, loveliest places on earth. So very, very horrible. https://t.co/fL5qn0dKFV
Visitors and residents told to ‘get out of’ an area half the size of Belgium immediately, in the face of historic fire threat day on Monday
Victorian authorities have told thousands of visitors and residents in East Gippsland – an area half the size of Belgium – to leave immediately in the face of a looming bushfire threat.
Emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp issued the order on Sunday ahead of what the Bureau of Meteorology has called one of the “significant fire weather days in Victoria’s history”.
Firefighters are bracing for extreme conditions with high temperatures forecast for next few days
Rainfall over parts of eastern Australia during the Christmas break did little to extinguish some of the country’s major bushfires, ahead of worsening conditions and a heatwave due to arrive in the coming days.
About 70 bushfires continue to burn throughout New South Wales, despite modest rainfall in some fire-affected parts of the state, while firefighters continued to battle a large blaze in South Australia on Boxing Day.
Everyone is invited, from the dozens who lost their homes, to the volunteer firefighters, to the Canadian firefighting contingent who have been working to relieve local crews.
Record low rainfall has contributed to a continent-scale emergency that has burned through more than 5m hectares and alarmed scientists, doctors and firefighters
As the area burned across Australia this fire season pushes beyond five million hectares, an area larger than many countries, stories of destruction have become depressingly familiar.
At the time of writing, nine people have been killed. Balmoral, in the New South Wales southern highlands, is the latest community affected in a state where up to 1,000 homes have been destroyed. A third of the vineyard area and dozens of homes were razed in the Adelaide Hills. It is too early for a thorough examination of the impact on wildlife, including the many threatened species in the fires’ path.
Cudlee Creek fire revealed to have destroyed 86 homes in South Australia while 100 more estimated lost in New South Wales as residents wait to discover extent of devastation from weekend’s fires. Follow the latest news and updates
Many more homes could have been lost in the NSW town of Balmoral on Saturday when the RFS firefighting crew ran out of water.
Guardian Australia’s Helen Davidson reports flames began reaching 200m above the treetops and the town, which is on tank water, simply did not have enough to meet demand.
We were desperately trying to get more water into us, desperately calling for more to come in. A member from another brigade spoke to his boss about getting another truck into us really quick. That company saved a lot of homes.
Catastrophic conditions have been declared as bushfires sweep across parts of New South Wales and South Australia. The death toll and number of injured firefighters has risen as a severe heatwave continues. Two people were confirmed dead in South Australia on Saturday, homes were destroyed and communities evacuated as the prime minister, Scott Morrison, was due to return to Australia after cutting short a family holiday to Hawaii
Emergency fire warnings have been issued for parts of NSW, including Greater Sydney, Victoria and South Australia. Follow for the latest news and updates
And this frightening footage from Adelaide.
As poster Lucky Tran says: “Thousands of expats are now returning home to Australia for the holidays and seeing sights like this from the plane. Incredibly heartbreaking.”
So.... this is what my hometown of Adelaide, Australia is looking like for the holidays...
The death toll from the unprecedented crisis has reached eight and sparked an apology from the prime minister
Even by the standards of 2019, with an Australian public increasingly conditioned to the threat of unprecedented bushfires and and warnings of record-breaking heat, this has been a week unlike those before it.
On Friday, firefighters were battling more than 200 fires across five states as a heatwave engulfing the country pushed temperatures in the south into the mid-40s, and Sydney and other centres were enveloped in a smoke that health professionals warned had been at hazardous levels for nearly a month. Strong winds pushed the smoke 900km south, where it also blanketing Melbourne.
Catastrophic bushfire conditions expected for several SA regions, Queensland faces severe fire danger and Melbourne weather forecast for hottest ever December day, as Morrison says he ‘deeply regrets any offence caused’ by holiday. Follow the latest news and updates
Leighton Drury, the NSW state secretary of the Fire Brigade Employees’ Union and a serving firefighter, has slammed both the New South Wales and federal governments over what he calls a lack of leadership and resourcing.
Both the premier Gladys Berejiklian and the prime minister Scott Morrison have consistently said crews in the state have the resources they need to battle the more than 100 fires currently burning across the state.
But at a press conference today Drury said the union believed the state’s professional firefighting force was currently 400 staff short, and he’d been told some regional crews were facing further cuts.
Drury told media that senior Fire and Rescue NSW figures had told him on Thursday that two regional communities - Urunga near Coffs Harbour on the state’s mid-coast and Peak Hill, south of Dubbo - would have their minimum staffing reduced from four firefighters to two as a result of budget cuts.
Drury said the cuts were emblematic of a wider lack of resourcing within Fire and Rescue NSW, the state’s professional fire service.
The union estimates that since 2011 firefighter numbers have remained at best stagnant while the state’s population has grown by approximately 800,000. The union believes the state’s force is 400 professional firefighters short.
“I’m calling on the premier, the treasurer and the emergency services minister to get in a room with Fire and Rescue NSW we know we’re 400 firefighters short across the state, 300 in regional NSW,” he said.
“That’s just on current numbers, that’s not to deal with the crisis we’re dealing with right now.”
The state’s professional firefighters have been working alongside the Rural Fire Service volunteers battling the more than 100 fires currently burning across the state.
“The RFS are doing all they can but let’s be honest you can’t ask people to do things for free for months on end they have their own lives. We’re coming into Christmas, they have their own jobs, they’ve got to earn a quid which is why we need professional firefighters to take care of these fires.
“The RFS, they’ve been at this now for three months this is not just the last two weeks. These fires started in August. We’ve been telling the government since March. They’re not listening and they need to fix it.”
And there are still currently 100 fires burning across the state, with half yet to be contained.
There are 100 fires burning across the state, with half to be contained. Dangerous fire conditions forecast for Saturday - now is time to prepare. Schools are finishing up this week so review & check your travel plans along your route, & at your destination. #nswrfs#nswfirespic.twitter.com/0UAJR6mrul
BoM data says Tuesday’s 40.9C was the hottest average maximum across the whole country ever recorded, as extreme heat moves across South Australia to Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, NSW, and bushfires continued. This blog is now closed
It is still unpleasantly warm here in Melbourne, and across much of southern Australia east of the Nullarbor. Fire activity is predicted to increase tomorrow and on Friday.
Here is a roundup of where things stand:
As of Wednesday afternoon there were about 70 bushfires burning across Queensland.
Oodnadatta and Port Augusta forecast to reach 48C and Sydney’s western suburbs to hit 45C
December heat records are expected to tumble in Australia from Wednesday as a heatwave moves across South Australia to Victoria and New South Wales.
Temperatures are forecast to peak in Victoria and South Australia on Friday, with Oodnadatta and Port Augusta to reach 48C, and peak in NSW on Saturday.
Up to 20 properties lost in Blue Mountains as megafire burns outside Sydney, while fires also threaten communities in Western Australia and Queensland
About 2,000 firefighters are currently fighting more 108 active bushfires in NSW.
The RFS have issued a new emergency warning for areas near Muswellbrook.
EMERGENCY WARNING - Kerry Ridge fire (Muswellbrook, Singleton and Mid-Western LGA) Fire activity increasing. If you are in the area of Olinda, Nullo Mountain and Bogee, watch out for embers that may start fires ahead of the main fire front. #nswrfs#nswfires#alertpic.twitter.com/6UEV0imNRS
David Bowman says Australia must retrofit houses to make them heat and smoke-proof
Australia has a “massive adaptive program” ahead to prepare for future protracted bushfires and subsequent air pollution, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science has warned, urging politicians to “tone down the ideology and start solving the problem using the skills Australians have”.
David Bowman, the director of the Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania’s school of natural sciences, said it was too late to call for action to prevent climate change and that people affected by smoke inhalation from fires should demand action to adapt to it, such as retrofitting houses to make them heat and smoke-proof.
Almost 3,000 firefighters across New South Wales will be deployed as more than 80 bushfires continue to burn and temperatures are expected to hit 40C. Follow all the latest updates
The Bureau of Meteorology says a southerly wind later this afternoon will help ease the smoke choking Sydney this morning, though it may not help firefighters battling blazes across the rest of the state.
A smoky start for #Sydney, with #smoke from nearby fires trapped overnight in a low-layer of the atmosphere, causing it to become concentrated. A southerly buster this afternoon will help reduce the smoke, especially nearer the coast. Health info re smoke: https://t.co/I3gS1GMBVApic.twitter.com/WJCrmDHsrv