Dangerous thick smoke from bushfires fills the Sydney’s air AGAIN as swathes of Victoria is shrouded in dust from ‘code red’ storms – and it’s going to get WORSE
- Sydney woke up to a blanket of smoke covering the city for the third time
- The state is still experiencing ‘very high’ fire danger ratings but no total fire bans
- The RFS announced on Thursday that 612 homes had so far been lost in NSW
Sydney has woken up to a blanket of thick smoke covering the city for the third time this week.
Almost 60 bushfires are still burning across NSW, and northerly winds have forced the smog toward the harbour.
The state is still experiencing ‘very high’ fire danger ratings, but the RFS have removed all total fire bans.
Meanwhile Victoria’s 60 fires have all been brought under control and reduced from a ‘code-red’ warning to a ‘low-moderate’ warning.
The RFS announced on Thursday that 612 homes had so far been lost in the devastating bushfires across NSW.
Five hundred and three of those homes were destroyed in the past fortnight alone.
Barely visible: The Harbour Bridge could only just be seen from a few hundred metres away due to the smoke
The Mildura sky turned orange from a dust storm on Thursday (pictured)
Smoke on the water: Sydney was covered by a blanket of think smoke on Thursday morning. Pictured: The Opera House
The fires have also claimed six lives.
Twenty-nine of the 59 bushfires still burning are yet to be contained, with just one fire on Myall Creek Road in northern NSW, classed as a watch and act.
Meanwhile, more than 60 fires burning across Victoria have been brought under control after a day marked by record-breaking temperatures and 100km/h winds.
All of the fire danger areas had been downgraded from ‘code red’, to low-moderate across the southern regions and to high in the northern districts.
A total fire ban across Victoria has also been lifted.
The government has warned the early start to the fire season in the state doesn’t bode well for the rest of the Spring-Summer period.
‘The worst conditions you’d see in February or March, we have seen [Thursday]’, Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said.
‘This shows us what the risks will be in summer around Victoria, so we still have a long way to go to be ready.’
Precautions: Commuters are pictured wearing face masks as they make their way to work due to the smoke over the city
The sun struggled to shine through the smoke as the city woke up with the smell of burning in the air on Thursday
On Thursday, Melbourne broke a 100-year-old temperature record for November when the mercury hit 40.9C and temperatures tipped well into the 40s in Mallee and northern country towns.
But cooler southerly winds swept through later on Thursday, sending the temperate down by 10C or more in less than 30 minutes.
The wind gusts prompted more than 1000 requests for assistance were registered by Victoria State Emergency Service, mostly for downed trees.
And more than 80,000 customers were left without power in the western part of the state, with Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat hardest hit, service provider Powercor said.
Crews responded to more than 22 fallen powerlines, and 130-plus separate faults across the state which were impacted by the extreme winds.
The weather is forecast to be milder over the weekend.
RFS volunteers and NSW Fire and Rescue officers protect a home impacted by the Gospers Mountain fire near Colo Heights south west of Sydney, Tuesday, November 19