A desperate battle was being fought last night from the air and from backyards to stave off the wildfire that was sweeping through Sydney's rich northern suburbs. Helicopters dumped water and firefighters filled buckets from swimming pools as flames, 60ft high, towered over houses just 17 km from the centre of Australia's largest city.
It was the closest the flames had come to the city centre since the fire started on Christmas Eve. Police said it had been started deliberately, like more than half of the 100 other fires that have plagued New South Wales. Eight people, including three 15-year-old boys, have been arrested.
The week-long heatwave, which pushed temperatures above 38 degrees in the city yesterday and saw strong winds blow from the parched interior, led to the potentially devastating outbreak in leafy suburbs.
"Mother nature is throwing her very worst at us," said Mr John Winter, of the New South Wales rural fire service. "The next 24 hours won't give us any let-up." In the affluent backyards of suburbs like Pennant Hills, North Epping and South Turramurra, 300 firefighters cut firebreaks to contain the blaze and pumped water from swimming pools.
Four helicopters dumped water on hotspots and residents were ordered to stay indoors and be prepared to move if necessary by officials who said conditions were too dangerous for mass evacuations.
The fire started suddenly in the early afternoon and spread quickly fanned by north-westerly winds gusting up to 50 m.p.h. "It was as hard as it gets," said fire captain John Corry. "It has intense heat, high winds and lots of smoke." Bank holiday sightseers, who crammed streets around the unfolding drama, were told to leave after fire engines had difficulty getting through the traffic.
Many home owners used buckets and garden hoses to damp down threatened properties after nightfall brought a lull in the winds. "The smoke was blinding," said one resident. "We could hear the sap from inside trees exploding, it was so hot."
The blazes, dubbed the Black Christmas fires, have claimed no lives but have destroyed 150 homes and blackened an area of 750,000 acres since the tinderbox conditions, which will continue for days, began on Christmas Eve. The latest outbreak follows the controversial go-ahead of a massive fireworks display over the Sydney harbour bridge on New Year's Eve despite a state-wide ban on the lighting of fires.
The city is still choked by a blanket of smoke and ringed by fire for the first time since 1994 when similar conditions killed four people.