Bushfires flared out of control in Australia today, destroying dozens of homes, forcing evacuations in outlying townships and closing road and rail links.
A towering pall of dense smoke blanketed the main city Sydney as winds gusting up to 55 mph fanned the flames of an estimated 70 bush fires across the state of New South Wales.
At least 5,000 firefighters, backed by helicopter and fixed wing water-bombers, struggled to contain the fires but there were no immediate reports of death or serious injury in the flames.
"It's very grave, we would ask everyone living close to the very large fires which we have, particularly to the south of Sydney to stay with their houses," Phil Koperberg, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, told Australian radio. New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Bob Debus said the emergency was as bad as January 1994 when at least 120 bush fires raged out of control on Australia's east coast.
Some of those fires swept into Sydney, burning homes down to the Pacific Ocean in what newspapers dubbed Australia's "Black Friday." The 1994 fires killed four people.
Koperberg said he expected a fire perimeter of several hundred kilometers (miles) this year as southwesterly winds turned the flank of the fire and drove it north toward Sydney.
"This is very grave situation indeed," he added.
Firefighters hoped the winds would ease after nightfall, allowing them to backburn to starve the fires of fuel before forecast strong winds and high temperatures Wednesday again fanned the flames.