Current forest fires in Australia
17 October 2013
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite acquired this image on 17 October. Fires are outlined in red; to the east, smoke pollution was a problem in populated coastal communities.
The densest plume hangs directly over Sydney, though the brighter white streak is probably a cloud. The largest fire is the State Mine fire, burning in the Blue Mountains near the Lithgow area.
The fire has burned more than 20,000 hectares and damaged an unknown number of properties.
Source: Earth Observatory, NASA
17 October 2013, will go down as one of the worst fire days in New South Wales history. 90 wildfires burned and 36 of them out of control and threatening communities near Sydney, Australia. Dry vegetation, high temperatures (above 34° Celsius), and erratic winds gusting to 90 kilometers per hour combined to create extremely dangerous fire conditions. Thousands of people have been evacuated because of the fires, and all affected communities have received emergency warnings. Between the State Mine and Linksview Road fires, hundreds of homes may have been destroyed. The third large fire in the image is the Hall Road fire. Despite its size, the blaze has caused little damage and is nearly under control. It may be a few days before the other fires are under control. Weather conditions are expected to improve, but the fire danger will remain high.
Recent Media Reports on Fires in the United States: Note: The hyperlinks on the left side of each news are password-protected (User ID and password to enter the GFMC database are available for partners of GFMC. To obtain the ID and password, please send your query to fire@fire.uni-freiburg.de). The links on the right side (in brackets) are leading to the original news source; sometimes these news are expiring rather swiftly – a reason for the establishment of the internal GFMC database):
- Australia: Anatomy of a bush fire: How Australia’s explosive forest fires work (published by http://edition.cnn.com 21 October 2013)
- Australia: Australian State declares wildfire emergency as weather worsens (published by www.bloomberg.com 20 October 2013)
- Australia: Australia faces worst wildfire threat in 40 years (published by www.france24.com 20 October 2013)
- Australia: Critical US water bomber grounded during NSW bushfire crisis (published by www.dailytelegraph.com.au 19 October 2013)
- Australia: Australian military exercise may have started wildfires (published by www.independent.ie 19 October 2013)
- Australia: Rural Fire Service used simulation technology to help save lives in Blue Mountains inferno (published by http://www.news.com.au 19 October 2013)
- Australia: Power lines blamed for 2 of Australia’s dozens of fires (published by http://edition.cnn.com 19 October 2013)
- Australia: Air pollution causes cancer (published by www.abc.net.au 18 October 2013)
- Australia: Raging Australian wilfires destroy homes, kill 1 (published by http://bigstory.ap.org 18 October 2013)
- Australia: Smoke Engulfs Sydney Skyline as Fires Rage Nearby (published by www.accuweather.com 18 October 2013)
- Australia: Bushfire crisis worst in a decade (published by http://au.news.yahoo.com 17 October 2013)
- Australia: Fire authorities are assessing whether students in bushfire-hit areas of NSW should go to school on Friday. (published by http://news.ninemsn.com.au 17 October 2013)
- Australia: Several fires raging around Newcastle (published by www.heraldsun.com.au 17 October 2013)
- Australia: Tasmanian government ignored warnings of devastating bushfires (published by www.theaustralian.com.au 17 October 2013)
- Australia: Tamanian bushfire report angers firies (published by http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au 16 October 2013)
- Australia: Damning report on Tasmania’s bushfire crisis finds lives probably put at risk (published by http://www.abc.net.au 16 October 2013)
- Australia: 2013 Tasmanian Bushfires Inquiry Report (published by www.dpac.tas.gov.au 15 October 2013)
- Australia: Tas bushfires prompt social media warning (published by http://news.ninemsn.com.au 15 October 2013)
- Australia: New Bushfire alerts to follow you (published by www.thecourier.com.au 15 October 2013)
- Australia: Australian scientists develop new tools to predict bushfire behaviour (published by www.abc.net.au 15 October 2013)
- Australia: Sharing the science on bushfires to improve prevention (published by www.abc.net.au 15 October 2013)
- Australia: Australia vulnerable in a warming planet, leaked IPCC report finds (published by www.canberratimes.com.au 14 October 2013)
- Australia: Fire-ravaged Hunter: NSW premier visits after six homes destroyed (published by www.theguardian.com 14 October 2013)
- Australia: NSW bushfire threat remains after six homes, 100 cars destroyed (published by http://au.news.yahoo.com 14 October 2013)
- Australia: Properties feared lost to bushfires (published by www.theage.com.au 14 October 2013)
- Australia: Bushfire risks will get worse, research shows (published by www.smh.com.au 14 October 2013)
- Australia: Fire crews battle blazes in Queensland and NSW (published by www.abc.net.au 14 October 2013)
- Australia: Evacuation as bushfire rages (published by www.maitlandmercury.com.au 14 October 2013)
- Australia: 43 cars destroyed in Homebush fire (published by www.smh.com.au 13 October 2013)
More reports see GFMC Media page: https://gfmc.online/media-highlights-on-fire-policies-and-politics.html