SYDNEY: Several Australian bushfires have combined to form a “mega fire” that is burning out of control across a swathe of land north of Sydney, authorities said, warning they cannot contain the blaze. New South Wales Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner, Rob Rogers said “there are probably more than eight fires in all” that have merged to form what has been dubbed a mega fire in an area of national park forest. The blaze was burning across 300,000 hectares — an area roughly 60 kilometers across — within an hour’s drive of Australia’s largest city, which was again subsumed in a soup of toxic smoke.

Source: Manila Times December 07, 2019 20:19 UTC