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Brenton Edwards / AFP / Getty Images
Firefighters in South Australia raced Monday to contain a major bushfire — the region's worst in three decades — ahead of predicted strong winds and a heat wave later this week that could further fuel a blaze that has destroyed dozens of homes and injured almost 30 people.
About 700 emergency responders have been involved in the operation, which included the use of more than a dozen aircraft to dump water on the flames in the hills northwest of the South Australia state capital Adelaide. The fires have already burned through 31,000 acres of countryside, State Premier Jay Weatherill said Monday.
On Friday and Saturday, hot and windy conditions that had fanned the destructive wildfires, which are common across much of Australia during the summer months spanning December through February, forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.
While fire crews were working to take advantage of conditions that have eased since Sunday, the state fire service warned that properties were still at risk, with temperatures in the Adelaide Hills — which has a population of 40,000 and features scenic villages known for farming produce and wineries — forecast to soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit later this week.
"This is by no means over," Weatherill told reporters as water carrying aircraft dropped hundred of thousands of liters of fire retardant on the blaze that has an almost 150-mile perimeter. "We're really racing against time to try to make sure that we get as much of this contained before the hotter weather and the stronger winds expected later in the week.”
Weatherill confirmed Monday that fires had destroyed 26 homes, but the damage could end up being much worse since the current figures are based on a survey of just 20 of the 59 affected areas.
In Kersbrook, one of the worst-hit villages in the Adelaide Hills, resident Dave Miller, 60, surveyed the scene of destruction where his home once stood, telling the Australian Associated Press he had little left.
"No house, not very much of anything, mate," he said. "I've got a diesel tank still standing with 4,000 liters of diesel in, but I've got nothing else."
Among those who evacuated was 24-year-old Jamie Lee Hicks, a resident of the town of One Tree Hill, also located in the Adelaide Hills. Hicks described the scene over the weekend to Al Jazeera as being akin to a "war zone," saying she and her partner were at her parents’ home when they saw smoke rising in the distance. As the night continued, the fire kept approaching the property, forcing her to leave the area.
"There was a red glow with so much smoke, and it looked really, really close," said Hicks.
The bushfire has once again reignited the issue of climate change and the Australian government's response, including that of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who in 2009 said the science behind climate change was "crap." Since coming to power, Abbott's government has done little to address climate change.
South Australia has seen well below average rainfall over the last three months, with temperatures two degrees higher than the long-term trend, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
In the wake of the fires, Australian Greens Party Leader Christine Milne has pushed the federal government to do more to battle climate change.
"Every year we are going to face these extreme weather events, which are going to cost lives and infrastructure, and enough is enough," Milne said, according to a report in the Australian paper The Advertiser. "The Abbott Government has to stop climate denial and help to get the country prepared to adapt to the more extreme conditions."
South Australian officials said the weekend fire conditions were the worst since a 1983 disaster killed more than 70 people in South Australia and Victoria and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.
The fire service downgraded an emergency warning on Sunday, but noted the blaze continued to burn freely in all directions. In neighboring Victoria state, cooler temperatures Sunday saw bushfire warnings downgraded. Officials said thousands of livestock were believed to have been lost.
Three blazes were still burning in Victoria on Monday, but no communities were under threat. "Black Saturday," the worst firestorm in recent years, devastated southern Victoria in 2009, razing thousands of homes and killing 173 people.
Al Jazeera and wire services. Royce Kurmelovs contributed to this report from Adelaide.
Firefighters are battling a rapidly spreading blaze covering nearly 12,000 acres in South Australia.
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