Catastrophic Bushfire Danger Hits South Australian Regions

Xinhua/APP

Canberra: Local authorities have declared a catastrophic fire danger warning for much of South Australia amid severe weather conditions.

The SA branch of the Country Fire Service (CFS), a volunteer service that has responsibility for firefighting in the state’s regional areas, warned on Friday that the southern Australian state was facing its most significant fire weather days in years.

Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius across most of SA on Friday, with strong winds and dry lightning exacerbating the fire risk.

The weather forecast has prompted the CFS to declare catastrophic fire danger ratings for five of the state’s 15 districts and extreme fire danger ratings for five more, including the state capital of Adelaide and its surrounding suburbs.

Under a catastrophic fire warning, people are urged to leave bushfire-risk areas, with any fires that do start and take hold likely to result in lost lives and property. A total fire ban has been declared for every region under catastrophic and extreme ratings.