Man dies as dozens of bushfires rage across Australia

New South Wales, Australia (AFP): Hundreds of firefighters were battling almost 70 bushfires in Australia’s New South Wales state on Tuesday, with one man dead and several homes under threat.

Police found the 56-year-old’s body after a bushfire scorched a large area in the rural settlement of Temagog, 340 kilometres (210 miles) north of Sydney, on Monday night.

Authorities had warned people living in the area just hours earlier that it was too late to leave their homes and they should take shelter.

Dozens of homes are still in the path of the fire, which has burned through more than 10,000 hectares, said Rural Fire Service commissioner Rob Rogers.

The bushfire has behaved in an “extraordinary” way, creating “a lot of instability in the atmosphere”, he told public broadcaster ABC.

The fire would undoubtedly still be burning this weekend, with warmer weather expected, Rogers said.

“While the danger has reduced in that area, there is still a lot of fire and it’s still very active,” he warned.

After several wet years, experts expect this summer to bring Australia’s most intense bushfire season since 2019-2020.

During that “Black Summer”, bushfires raged across Australia’s eastern seaboard, razing swaths of forest, killing millions of animals and blanketing cities in smoke.

Australia’s weather bureau last month declared the formation of an El Nino weather pattern, bringing hot and dry conditions likely to increase the severity of bushfires and drought.