Bushfires Spread Across NSW of Australia on Christmas Day

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 26, 2001

Bushfires Spread Across NSW of Australia on Christmas Day

Australia's Sydney is surrounded by a ring of fire Wednesday, as more than 100 fires continue burning across New South Wales.

Australia's Sydney is surrounded by a ring of fire Wednesday, as more than 100 fires continue burning across New South Wales.

The NSW Government has declared parts of Sydney's west, southern Sydney, the central coast, Illawarra, the north coast, central west and the Hunter as natural disaster areas.

Fire officers are battling a 700-kilometre fire front, concentrating their efforts on blazes burning in a 10-kilometre stretch from Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west through to the Royal National Park, in Sydney's south.

Firefighters are battling a blaze that has just crossed the Princes Highway between Heathcote and Waterfall into the Royal National Park.

People in the township of Waterfall and in camping grounds in the park were evacuated last night.

Emergency services are now worried about West Heathcote as gusts of south-westerly winds fan fingers of the fire towards homes.

Twenty tankers, along with 200 firefighters from Victoria have just arrived to help in the battle to save properties and establish containment lines.

More than 100 welfare workers have spent the night at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre, helping evacuees who were forced to leave their homes late yesterday afternoon.

Around 1,100 people were evacuated from their homes in the Helensburgh, Otford and Waterfall areas as fires advanced.

Mike Archer, from emergency headquarters in Wollongong, says buses are transporting many evacuees to the Campbelltown area this morning.

Firefighters fear a wind change could see the flank of the blazes become the fire fronts.

Around 4,000 firefighters are currently on the ground.

Authorities estimate that more than 80 properties have been destroyed in the greater Sydney area.

The fires are considered the worst since 1994, when four lives were lost and 185 homes destroyed around Sydney.