Melbourne: Australian authorities on Thursday declared a state of emergency and forced evacuation of residents, tourists and closure of roads in the bushfire zones in the states of New South Wales and Victoria ahead of Saturday's forecast of "horrible" fire conditions due to the intensified heat wave.
Catastrophic blazes ripped through the country's south-east on New Year's eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers.
New South Wales government on Thursday declared state of emergency for a week starting Friday which would mean forced evacuations and road closures for people in bushfire zones ahead of Saturday's forecast "horrible" fire conditions.
Authorities have urged people to leave the impacted areas if they can as the Rural Fire Service department is expecting tough conditions over the weekend.
"So we're going to have a very long, difficult day of hot, dry winds, dominating out of the north, north-west before a southerly change emits. It is going to be a very dangerous day. It's going to be a very difficult day,'' Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
As of Thursday, NSW was struggling with 113 fires burning across the state with over four million hectares burnt. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian thanked the police for their efforts to ensure people's safety.
"I want to thank in particular police, fire rescue personnel who have made sure that where people can have access to main roads, that they can let them through even monitoring them closely, with only letting a few cars through at a time," he said.
"We know temperatures will be in the mid-40s in parts of the state. We also know that there are a lot of tourists on the move and allowing us to declare the state of emergency from tomorrow morning will allow us to ensure that we can provide safe access to roads when we need to," he said.
"We can also provide safe access to roads when we need to, we can also provide safe access to and from destinations as we have been encouraging people to move back home, to travel safely ahead of what will been very difficult circumstances on Saturday," Berejiklian added.
Berejiklian urged people to exercise caution.
Smoke turns New Zealand sky 'eerie' yellow
Wellington: Smoke from the raging bushfires in Australia has turned the skies in neighbouring New Zealand into an "eerie" yellow colour along with haze and a burnt smell in the air. The smoke first reached New Zealand's South Island on Tuesday turning skies a hazy yellow. By Thursday, the haze and burnt smell had also reached the North Island.
"I have never seen anything like the haze over the past 48 hours," Arthur McBride of glacier tour company Alpine Guides told the BBC on Thursday. Tourist flights up to Tasman, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers are a popular way to experience New Zealand's stunning mountain scenery.
But for the past days, visitors have endured a thick yellow haze, instead of the white snow and bright blue skies expected.
"Wednesday afternoon was particularly bad," McBride said, adding: "The smell of woodsmoke is still distinct."
