By Naaman Zhou
New South Wales residents prepare for catastrophic fire conditions across Greater Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra/Shoalhaven with strong winds and high temperatures forecast as dozens of bushfires continue to burn across Queensland and Australia‘s east coast
• NSW fires: almost 600 schools closed today amid catastrophic bushfire conditions
• Catastrophic fire danger: what does it mean?
• If you are in a bushfire affected area stay tuned to your local emergency broadcaster. Full alerts can be found here for NSW and here for Queensland
1.20am GMT
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also gave a press conference at the same time, she thanked firefighters, the defence force and the extra 110 firefighters from Tasmania, Victoria, the NT and New Zealand.
She confirms that 12 homes have been destroyed.
1.18am GMT
Fitzsimmons concludes by saying that the worst is yet to come, and the blazes will continue through the night with “no reprieve”.
“We’re going to have a long night ahead of us because this southerly is going to continue through, and those strong winds are not going to get to northern NSW until near midnight,” he says.
Source: NSW and Qld fires: three emergency warnings issued for out-of-control fires – live
