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Three people are missing after an out-of-control wildfire in Australia’s Victoria state destroyed homes and burned vast tracts of bushland, authorities said on Friday.
Blistering winds and temperatures of up to 46C are forecast in northern Victoria.
“This is one of the most dangerous fire days this state has experienced in years,” Victorian Premier Jacinda Allen said.
The fire near Longwood City has burned more than 35,000 hectares of forest land, while the fire near Wallwa has reached about 20,000 hectares.
Both started on Wednesday during the sweltering summer heat in Australia’s south.
According to meteorologists, He said conditions were similar to 2019, when bushfires ravaged large areas of southeastern Australia and killed 33 people in the so-called Black Summer.
On the front lines of Australia’s unprecedented bushfire crisis, Australia’s Black Summer tells the story of people trapped during one of the worst bushfires in history. The videos shocked the world – images that show the horrors of the wildfires – but who filmed them and how did their story end?
The analysis was released on Tuesday Central to the climate, human-caused climate change has increased temperatures in many regions of Australia by at least two to five times more.
“Terrible” fire
Friday’s fire rating was set at “catastrophic” and both the Longwood and Wallowa fires pose a real threat to life and property, officials said.
The Walwa fire has created its own weather system, with pyrocumulonimbus clouds causing lightning and thunder.
Premier Allen said the fires themselves have made existing fire conditions more difficult by creating more weather, lightning sparking new fires in many areas of the state and strong winds and strong winds.
Residents of dozens of neighboring towns were told to evacuate.
About 450 schools in Victoria were closed on Friday and many regional train services were cancelled.
A total fire ban was imposed across the state on Friday.
In New Zealand, the country’s weather provider, MetService, has warned of record temperatures over the weekend as temperatures move across the Tasman Sea.
Heat alerts have been issued for New Zealand’s east coast and the north of the South Island.