Australia holds its breath ahead of Friday as fires could become unstoppable, fire chief says

It is popularly known as the “Black Summer”. The fires during the Australian summer of 2019-2020 killed 33 people and an estimated one billion animals. A total of 170,000 square kilometers burned, which is approximately the size of Svealand and Götaland combined.

Now southern parts of the country are preparing to avoid a repeat starting in the next few days.

In several of Australia's southern states, bushfires of various sizes are raging out of control. In the state of Victoria, one of the fires has so far spread over 3,000 hectares toward the border with neighboring New South Wales.

An ongoing heatwave sweeping across much of the country is bringing back bitter memories. Temperatures in Melbourne reached 41 degrees on Wednesday - the hottest day since January 31, 2020.

Friday is likely to be decisive in determining how catastrophic the consequences of the ongoing fires will be. Chris Hardman, the fire chief in Victoria, tells the ABC that if a fire starts on Friday, it will probably not be able to be stopped.

Those that cannot be stopped immediately will become unstoppable, he says.