The Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia — Firefighters battled Wednesday to contain a wildfire that razed a number of homes in southern Australia amid soaring temperatures and warnings that the worst was yet to come.
Two fires in southern Victoria state destroyed a number of homes late Tuesday, including one west of the capital, Melbourne, and three in the state’s northeast, where a massive blaze has blackened nearly 67,000 acres over the past two days, according to the Victoria Country Fire Authority.
Authorities earlier reported that eight houses had burned down, but revised the figure after firefighters were able to enter the charred areas and inspect the damage.
Meanwhile, firefighters were struggling to contain the northeast blaze, which knocked out a main electricity circuit on Tuesday — plunging some 200,000 homes and businesses into darkness, and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services.
Several people were caught in elevators when power went out in some buildings and had to be rescued.
The power was restored early Wednesday, but Victoria’s Premier Steve Bracks urged residents to conserve electricity as temperatures were set to exceed 104 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
“This is the worst bush fire conditions we have ever had in Victoria’s history because it is going to go on and it is going to get worse,” Bracks told reporters Wednesday. “We have never encountered this in Victoria before.”
Nearly 3,900 square miles of Victorian forest and ranch land have been destroyed since the start of the southern hemisphere summer, when soaring temperatures and gusty winds often combine to spur the sometimes deadly blazes.
Officials also evacuated tourists and residents of a resort community in the Snowy Mountains of neighboring New South Wales state on Wednesday, where firefighters and six water-bombing aircraft were struggling to contain a blaze, the Rural Fire Service said.