Death toll increases to four from Australian Wildfire crisis

Thursday, November 14, 2019

The death toll from Australian wildfire crisis has increased to four with the finding of a man’s body in a scorched forest in northeast New South Wales.

The body was discovered by cops in the northwest of the town of Kempsey, before midnight on Wednesday. The body is supposed to be of a 58-year-old who used to live in a nearby shed.

The person was not seen since Friday when wildfires across New Southwest killed three people and destroyed around 150 houses.

Till Thursday morning, around 60 wildfires continued to burn around New South Wales, with 27 uncontained by over 1,000 firefighters.

As per Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Roger, the Tuesday’s fire warning had not made battling blazes easier in the drought-stricken landscape. Kempsey, Australia’s biggest city, has suffered under extreme conditions recently. Around 300 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales alone as flames spread from the state’s north down the coast to suburban Sydney.

Those engaged in dousing the wildfire said that conditions are supposed to get worst by Friday as the temperature is likely to go up in next week, a return to more gusty conditions.

Temperatures are likely to soar nearby Port Hedland.

The annual Australian fire season has started early after a dry and warm winter.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said that the most of the country is supposed to be drier than usual in the remainder of 2019 and that summer rainfall is likely to be below average in parts of the east.

The authorities say that the fires have destroyed around one million hectares of farmland and bush over the past week.

The wildfires have been fuelled by tinder-dry conditions and high winds after three years of drought. Experts attribute these weather extremities to climate change.

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