Australia bushfires combine to form 'mega fire' north of Sydney • Disaster News & Views - Sharing information for Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development.

Australia bushfires combine to form ‘mega fire’ north of Sydney

An estimated two million hectares of land have burned so far on the continent, the size of some smaller countries.

The blaze was burning across 300,000 hectares within an hour’s drive of Australia’s largest city [AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via Reuters]

Several Australian bushfires have combined to form a “mega fire” that is burning out of control across a swath of land north of Sydney, authorities said, warning they cannot contain the blaze.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers on Friday said “there are probably more than eight fires in all” that have merged to form what has been dubbed a “mega fire” in an area of the national park forest.

The blaze was burning across 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) – with a front roughly 60km (37 miles) wide – within an hour’s drive of Australia’s largest city, which was again subsumed in a soup of toxic smoke.

Content retrieved from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/australia-bushfires-combine-form-mega-fire-north-sydney-191206074513633.html.

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