Australian firefighters said they had successfully mastered the country’s largest “mega-fire” on Monday, which had been out of control for almost three months when rainy weather is expected.
New South Wales state firefighters said they finally got the upper hand in their fight against the huge blaze that burned out of control in the mountainous area of Gospers, northwest of the Sydney suburbs .
On a visit to the area on Monday, rural New South Wales fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons said “there is still a small area to be done” but “the confinement prognosis looks promising” .
In this national park, this “mega-fire” ravaged an area three times larger than Greater London and generated other foci, bringing to 800,000 the total number of hectares destroyed, an area larger than Austria .
As residents and authorities continue to cope with the scale of the disaster on Monday, meteorological services have announced up to 50 millimeters of rain for next week in some affected areas, relief after months of prolonged drought.
Dozens of other fires have already been brought under control.
Linked to a particularly severe drought in Australia, these fires are aggravated by global warming. They have generated a huge surge of solidarity across the planet and donations are pouring in to help the inhabitants and the animals affected.
Australian flora and fauna, which have unique species in the world, have been badly affected. An estimated one billion animals have been killed, not counting the multitude of trees and shrubs that have gone up in smoke.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley has warned that in some regions koalas will have to be classified as endangered.
This weekend, Sydney will host a charity gala for the benefit of firefighting, Red Cross and wildlife services. Headliners such as the American hard rock singer, Alice Cooper, the British actress and singer Olivia Newton-John and the rock group Queen are expected.
The political impact of the crisis is also growing. A poll released Monday shows a drop in approval rates for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s criticism of his handling of the crisis. The Newspoll poll indicates that 59% of Australians are not satisfied with the head of the Conservative government, while 37% are satisfied, a sudden turnaround in opinion since his victory in the elections in May.
He is accused in particular of having gone on vacation to Hawaii in December, of having committed a whole series of blunders, made false statements on the actions carried out by his government and of having forced victims to shake his hand.
Morrison said at the start of the fires that local authorities could manage them and that the exhausted volunteer firefighters “wanted to be there”.
He has also repeatedly stated that Australia is doing more than enough to meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets while renewing its support for the lucrative but highly polluting Australian coal industry.
The Australian people have repeatedly expressed their anger during large-scale protests.
Faced with the challenge, Morrison took action, deploying the military, calling on military reservists and pledging billions of dollars in aid.
He also increased the amount of allowances paid to firefighters and suggested that more should be done in terms of CO2 emissions.
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