Fires rage on despite dip in temperatures

Authorities tell residents of New South Wales town of Eden to leave homes

SYDNEY－A dangerous fire flared up in southeastern Australia on Sunday even as cooler conditions elsewhere allowed authorities to begin assessing the damage from heatwave-spurred blazes that swept through two states on Saturday.

Officials told residents and others in the New South Wales town of Eden to leave immediately and head north if they did not have a bushfire response plan.

"If your plan is to leave, or you are not prepared, leave toward Merimbula or Pambula," the state's Rural Fire Service said in an alert.

Tens of thousands of homes in both New South Wales and Victoria states were without power on Sunday as a large-scale military and police effort provided supplies and evacuated thousands of people trapped for days in coastal towns by the fires.

Previously, a southerly wind on Saturday night brought lower temperatures, after topping 40 C in many areas on Saturday. There was even the prospect of some rain in coastal areas in coming days.

Cooler temperatures and light rain forecast in some coastal areas in coming days could bring some relief, but officials said that would not be enough to bring the nearly 200 fires under control.

Fire officials said the next major flashpoint would come later in the week, but it was too early to gauge the likely severity of the threat.

"The weather activity we're seeing, the extent and spread of the fires, the speed at which they're going, the way in which they are attacking communities who have never ever seen fire before is unprecedented," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye expressed his sympathies and condolences to the fire victims, and showed his appreciation to the firefighter and emergency services volunteers who devoted their heroic and dedicated efforts to fight the fire.

"I believe the Australian people will overcome the current difficulties and prevail over the terrible bushfires at the earliest possible time," he said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Saturday a historic first for the country: 3,000 army, navy and air force reservists will be thrown into the battle against the fires. He also committed $14 million to leasing firefighting aircraft from overseas.

But those decisions attracted complaints that he had taken too long to act while fires have burned through millions of hectares in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Morrison told a news conference on Sunday it was not the time for blame.

"There has been a lot of blame being thrown around," said the prime minister. "And now is the time to focus on the response that is being made. ... Blame doesn't help anybody at this time and over-analysis of these things is not a productive exercise."

Thousands of firefighters fought to contain the blazes but many continued to burn out of control, threatening to wipe out rural townships and causing almost incalculable damage to property and wildlife.

As dawn broke over a blackened landscape on Sunday, a picture emerged of disaster of unprecedented scale. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service said 150 fires were active in the state, 64 of them uncontrolled.

At the same time, smoke from Australia's bushfires drifting over to New Zealand caused a flood of emergency calls on Sunday as people reported a thick orange haze hovering over Auckland.

In recent days the smoke had covered much of the South Island, making usually pristine white glaciers appear brown.

The smoke has now moved north and blanketed much of the top half of the North Island, home to around two million New Zealanders.

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