Victoria, South Australia Face Fire Warning as Temperatures Soar

Southwestern parts of the Australian state of Victoria face an extreme risk of bush and grassfires today as temperatures surge as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), authorities said.

The Country Fire Authority banned residents in four districts from lighting fires in the open air all day, and said conditions there are extreme or severe, the second- and third- highest levels on the danger scale. The remainder of the southeastern state, while not under a ban, also faces the risk of bushfires, according to the CFA’s website.

Melbourne, the state capital, will see temperatures as high as 40 degrees Celsius, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website.

South Australia’s Country Fire Service issued a severe fire danger warning for parts of the state as temperatures rise to the low 40s, and relative humidity falls to below 10 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net