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Homes Destroyed as Wildfires Rage Across Eastern Australia

Homes Destroyed as Wildfires Rage Across Eastern Australia

(Bloomberg) -- Bushfires continue to ravage Australia’s east coast, destroying about 688 houses in the most populous state of New South Wales as firefighters battle changeable wind conditions and hot weather.

More than 2,200 firefighters and over 100 aircraft were involved in the co-ordinated actions, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Saturday. One helicopter had to make a hard landing on the Mid North coast but the pilot was uninjured, he said.

Homes Destroyed as Wildfires Rage Across Eastern Australia

“At this stage, we don’t have any fires burning at the emergency warning alert level but we can’t rule that out as the weather continues to press through throughout the afternoon,” Fitzsimmons said.

The ferocious and early start to the fires this year has stoked a debate around whether Australia’s government -- a champion of the coal industry -- is doing enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The bushfires have had a dramatic effect on Sydney’s air quality with pockets of the city ranked worse than Shanghai on Thursday.

At midday, there were 95 bushfires burning in NSW with almost half yet to be contained, according to the RFS. The neighboring state of Queensland is also battling blazes across a number of fronts.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Keith Gosman in Sydney at kgosman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Stanley James

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With assistance from Bloomberg