Millions of residents and travellers across several states have been warned to stay alert as the risk of Christmas week bushfires intensify.
Several states entered Monday battling dangerous blazes or warning of potential outbreaks, including NSW, with hot, dry and windy conditions expected to pose extreme fire danger in Sydney.
Angus Hines, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said temperatures were forecast to reach 29C in Sydney on Monday, but dry, warm winds from the interior were raising the fire danger.
The Hunter and other northern parts of NSW also faced extreme conditions and total fire bans. Both western and northern parts of Western Australia were also facing heatwave conditions on Monday.
Perth was forecast to reach a top of 41C, while Midland – 15km from the CBD – had a forecast maximum of 44C. Further north conditions could reach 46C, Hines said, with warm and breezy conditions increasing fire dangers.
Victorian and South Australian authorities are preparing for catastrophic and extreme conditions on Boxing Day. Hines described this as a “spike day” when both temperatures and fire danger would climb “quite sharply” due to a change in weather pattern.
On Sunday the Victorian Country Fire Authority’s deputy chief officer, Garry Cook, urged anyone travelling on Boxing Day to download the VicEmergency app before they left.
Towns and tourism providers were already nervous in Victoria as a massive bushfire cut through the state’s west at the weekend. The Grampians national park blaze had burned through more than 41,000 hectares by Monday morning – about more than 20% of the park’s footprint – and forced several towns to evacuate before pivoting north-east late on Sunday, prompting evacuation warnings for hamlets east of the park.
It remained out of control on Sunday despite more than 300 firefighters battling to bring it to heel and secure containment lines before conditions worsened again later in the week.
Danger levels were expected to reach catastrophic in the Wimmera and extreme in most other districts, including Melbourne, where temperatures are expected to reach 39C on Boxing Day.
“As we look toward Boxing Day, firefighters are currently conducting back-burning operations to protect nearby towns and establish fire breaks,” Cook said.
Authorities said it could take weeks to fully contain the fire ignited by a lightning strike. Aaron Kennedy, an incident controller, said the blaze was in very steep, difficult and dry terrain.
“Our ability to fight this fire directly is quite challenging,” he said.
Kennedy said two years of dry conditions in western Victoria, particularly in the Grampians national park, meant fires spread quickly.
Regional areas of South Australia are expecting similar threatening conditions on Thursday.
Meanwhile, firefighters were mopping up a blaze on Sunday that had threatened life and property on Perth’s northern outskirts.
The fast-moving fire at Two Rocks forced evacuation warnings on Sunday afternoon but was later brought under control.
High fire danger is again forecast for the region on Monday while extreme risk is predicted in inland parts of Western Australia’s midwest and south-west.
