Update- New South Wales Fires Headed For More Populated Areas

56 fires continue to scorch hundreds of thousands of acres of land across New South Wales, Australia and they do not appear to be letting up. Hot, dry, and windy conditions are expected again for the next couple days and you have to start asking yourself when are these people going to catch a break? Sadly, it appears the answer is not anytime soon.


The weather reports in eastern Australia coupled with the fact that the fires are headed toward much more densely populated areas has forced the New South Wales Premier, Barry O'Farrell, to declare a state of emergency for the state. Thankfully there is still only one confirmed death from these fires but emergency response workers are still collecting this data.

What is even worse about these fires is the direction they are going. They are headed to the heavily populated Australian coast. Specifically, the area covered under O'Farrell's state of emergency includes the city of Sydney. This is a city of over 4.5 million people and although I do not fear that most if not all of the fires would be stopped before they reached a major city like that, but there is no guarantee of that. 12 of these fires are still considered out of control and the heavy winds expected tomorrow could add to that.


Thankfully very few personal injuries have occurred due to the fires and that has to do with terrific government response from the Australian government. Rain is expected to fall on the area on Tuesday. Lets just hope that the weather man is right for once.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/20/world/asia/australia-fires/