A severe heatwave sweeping across southeastern Australia fueled bushfires, forced hundreds of residents in rural towns to evacuate and shattered temperature records, with Melbourne logging its hottest day in nearly 17 years.
Temperatures in parts of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, climbed above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
In Victoria’s northwest Mallee region, the mercury soared to 48.9 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), setting a new state record, according to preliminary data from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
The heatwave, the most severe since the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires that killed 173 people in Victoria, pushed fire danger levels to extreme across large parts of the state.
Many communities were still recovering from large bushfires earlier this month, also triggered by a severe heatwave.
Chris Hardman, chief fire officer of Forest Fire Management Victoria, said six major fires were burning, three of them out of control.
He said a fast-moving blaze in the Otways region was of greatest concern to firefighters, burning about 10,000 hectares (24,000 acres) and destroying at least three properties.
“Firefighters did an incredible amount of work to try to contain that fire overnight, but as the warmer weather and the inversion broke, some gusty winds came down and the fire spotted outside its original containment lines,” he told a news conference.
Hardman warned that strong winds of up to 70 kph (43 mph) forecast for the evening could further spread the blaze and threaten homes.
“We will get a strong south-southwesterly wind change,” he said. “That fire will run, it will develop a plume, it will pick up significant energy and we will see erratic and extreme fire behavior.”
Emergency services have doorknocked about 1,100 homes and sent text messages to around 10,000 phones urging residents to leave the region, officials said.
Total fire bans were declared across Victoria as authorities sought to reduce the risk of new fires.
Organizers of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne said matches on outside courts and roof closures would follow the event’s extreme heat condition protocols. Wheelchair matches were postponed to Wednesday.
In inland Victoria, temperatures in some rural towns also broke local records. Hopetoun Airport and Walpeup in the Mallee region, about 477 kilometers (296 miles) northwest of Melbourne, both reached 48.9 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest temperature ever recorded in the state.
Nathan Grayling, a butcher in the town of Ouyen, told ABC Radio he planned to keep his business as dark and cool as possible, with most residents expected to stay indoors.
“If we get everything done, we might knock off early and go down to the local pub for a beer,” Grayling said.
