Hundreds fled their homes on Friday as extreme heat and high winds fanned dozens of bushfires across Australia. The conditions are believed to be the worst seen since Black Saturday fire in 2009 that killed 173 people.
One person died in the e south-eastern state of Victoria where 70 bushfires have gone out of control amid high temperatures going above 40 degrees Celsius, destroying or damaging houses.
Dozens of blazes are burning in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.
Seven emergency warnings to severely affected areas have been issued by the authorities, prompting hundreds of residents to flee their homes.
Victoria Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said that 1,000-hectare (81-sq-mile) fire in the Grampians bushland in Victoria was so intense it had “created its own weather”, triggering lightning and spot fires.
Strong wind changes and thunderstorms forecast for later Friday could worsen conditions, he said.
“There is a stronger southernly wind expected to come through there tonight and that could create worse conditions for the fire and cause it to spread further,” a spokeswoman for Victoria’s Country Fire Authority told a foreign news agency.
Australia’s south and southeast have been in the grip of a heat wave for nearly a week, with climate experts warning of even longer and hotter heat waves to come, raising questions about its long-term position as an agricultural powerhouse.