An Australian volunteer firefighter died on Monday and two others suffered burns after their truck rolled over when it was hit by extreme winds amid raging bushfires. The firefighters were working on a fire about 70km (45 miles) east of Albury in New South Wales, fire authorities tweeted. As many as 11 emergency fire warnings were in place in the state of Victoria, where conditions were expected to become extreme overnight, while fires were also threatening South Australia and Tasmania. Wildfires that have plagued the country’s eastern coast for weeks flared again to danger levels in Victoria state’s East Gippsland, an area encompassing two national parks, lakes and coastal plains that is half the size of Belgium. Around 100 fires are burning across Australia, the bulk of them in the southeast, across the states of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

Source: The Irish Times December 30, 2019 07:37 UTC