Canberra: Australia woke up to a thick cover of smoke and worlds worst air quality in its capital city of Canberra on Sunday, as bushfire overruns homes, farms and properties causing irreparable damage to humans and wildlife.
According to reports, New South Wales, Victoria and the Kangaroo Island in South Australia remain worst affected with catastrophic conditions likely to prevail aided by the strong winds and dry landscape. The sky also turned blood red in worst-affected parts and firefighters remain on the ground to contain the fire.
Australia's prime minister also called up about 3,000 reservists as the threat of wildfires escalated on Saturday in at least three states with two more deaths, and strong winds and high temperatures were forecast to bring flames to populated areas including the suburbs of Sydney.
The government has committed 20 million Australian dollars ($14 million) to lease four fire-fighting aircraft for the duration of the crisis, and the helicopter-equipped HMAS Adelaide was deployed to assist evacuations from fire-ravaged areas.
The fire danger increased as temperatures rose to record levels across Australia, surpassing 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) in the capital Canberra and 48 C (118 F) in Penrith, in Sydney's western suburbs.
Read: Australian PM calls up reservists as fire threats escalate
More than 130 fires were burning in New South Wales and at least half of those were out of control. Temperatures in parts of the state are expected to soar in the mid-40s C (about 113 F) amid strong winds and low humidity.
A total of 48 fires were burning across almost 320,000 hectares (791,000 acres) in Victoria state and conditions were expected to worsen with a southerly wind change.
The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has already burned about 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.
