Australia Fire Maps: Where the Devastating Wildfires Are Burning

Australia is facing a nationwide crisis as record-breaking temperatures and months of severe drought have fueled an unprecedented number of fires burning in five states. More than 15.6 million acres (6.3 million hectares)—about the size of West Virginia and three times the size of Wales—have been destroyed this fire season. As of Tuesday, the death toll from the fires had climbed to 24, with dozens more unaccounted for.

In Victoria, where about 200 homes were destroyed, emergency services had 39 public warnings in place early Tuesday, and detailed 77 specific fire incidents in the state. Fires forced vacationing tourists and residents on the coast in the state of Victoria to take cover on beaches. In the coastal town of Mallacoota, navy ships rescued about 1,000 people on Friday with another 200 due to be rescued later this week. Showers are giving firefighters some relief but hot conditions are forecast to return.

Fires continue to burn on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, where two people died in a blaze. The fire has burned 155,000 hectares—about one third of the island’s entire area, devastating the national park and farmland.

A state of emergency lasting seven days was called on Friday in New South Wales, which has been hardest hit with nearly 9 million acres destroyed. About 130 fires were burning across the state at the start of last weekend, and more than 1,588 homes have been destroyed. Evacuations were ordered for a 350 kilometer (217 mile) stretch of coastline in the southern part of the state.

High winds and hot, dry conditions—it was the hottest and driest year on record in 2019—have made some of the blazes nearly impossible to contain. Winds can help fires grow so large that they’re capable of spawning fire tornadoes that spew embers dozens of kilometers away—sparking new fires.

Many of the blazes have spread through rural forests and grazing land. About half a billion native animals may have been killed in the blazes in New South Wales state alone, according to researchers at the University of Sydney, while tens of thousands of livestock may have been lost in Victoria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation cited the state agriculture minister as saying.

Even areas removed from the fires are feeling their impact. Smoke from the blazes has drifted as far as New Zealand, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away. In Sydney, the air quality measured 12 times the “hazardous” level earlier in December.

Neville Nicholls, professor emeritus at Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, said the peak time for heatwaves in southern Australia has not yet arrived.