In Australia, for the first time since the terrible “black summer” of three years ago (late 2019-early 2020), the state of New South Wales is facing the threat of major forest fires. With the current high heat, the authorities are taking measures to avoid any risk for residents.
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With our correspondent in Sydney, Leo Roussel
The southern summer has not yet arrived and the south-east coast of Australia is already crumbling under temperatures exceeding 30 degrees and a hot wind which raises fears of uncontrollable fires. In some areas of New South Wales, firefighters have raised the alert threshold to ” catastrophic » Tuesday September 19. This is the highest possible alert threshold, synonymous with an extremely high risk of fires.
Under threat of fire, 21 schools in the state even closed their doors. An unprecedented precaution told by Kath McCarthy, mother of two students in Broulee, in the south-east of the state: “ It was, it was, but above all it was a little extra stress to have these schools closing. This is not something that has ever happened for this reason, especially in this region. »
In other areas of the state such as around Sydney, a total fire ban has come into force. Firefighters are on alert, as Greg Allan, spokesperson for the New South Wales state fire service, says: “ The conditions we are seeing now, and which we will see in the coming months, will undoubtedly be the most dangerous since the 2019-2020 wildfire season. »
Temperatures are expected to rise further on Wednesday, but conditions are expected to improve with a drop in heat expected on Thursday. Vigilance remains maximum in Australia, where summer promises to be more dangerous than ever with the return of the “El Niño” climatic phenomenon.