Australia swelters through heat wave amid 'extreme' fire danger

Large parts of Australia on Saturday sweltered under heat wave conditions that prompted the nation's weather forecaster to issue bush fire warnings in several states.

Heat wave alerts were in place for parts of Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website.

The hot weather lifts the risk of bush fires in an already high-risk wildfire season amid an El Nino weather event, which is typically associated with extreme disasters such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.

In the town of Fitzroy Crossing, in remote Western Australia, a maximum temperature of 46 degrees Celsius was forecast on Saturday, more than 5 C above the average December maximum, according to forecaster data.

As temperatures soared, fire weather warnings were in place for parts of Western Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, the forecaster said.

In New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, more than 50 fires were burning on Saturday and a total fire ban was in place for many areas, including Sydney, the state's rural fire service said.

The agency said on social media platform X that more than 700 firefighters and incident management personnel were working statewide to fight blazes amid "widespread high and extreme fire danger."

Authorities have warned of a high-risk bush fire season this Australian summer after a quiet two seasons compared with the 2019-2020 "Black Summer" of bush fires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.

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