SYDNEY, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Fog smog covered the fourth Australian city of Perth on Wednesday in a fast-moving fire that destroyed dozens of homes, complicating a tight blockade after Australia’s first COVID-19 case West in more than 10 months.
Authorities said the heat and drying conditions that fueled the fires in the north-eastern suburbs of Perth eased slightly overnight.
“We had a better night than the night before, we had no impact on the fires any property overnight and also some milder conditions allowed us to complete some pursuits,” the state commissioner for road services told reporters. firefighters Darren Klemm.
Klemm revised the number of homes lost from fires to 71 out of 59, while urging residents to remain vigilant as irregular winds could rekindle some fires. No deaths have been reported due to the fires, the origins of which are still unknown.
“It will continue to be a provocative fire for us for at least the next three, four or five days,” Klemm said.
However, the favorable weather could bring a respite with possible rain on the weekend and temperatures expected to drop to about 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next few days from the mid-30s, authorities said.
A low tropical level in the north of the state brought heavy rains and fine winds there, and the system could move south, bringing wet weather over the next few days, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
Two million people in Perth, the state capital, are in a five-day deadlock until Friday, after a hotel quarantined worker tested positive for the highly contagious version of COVID-19 first detected in the UK.
Residents must stay at home, except for essential work, medical care, shopping or exercise, with visits to hospitals and nursing homes prohibited.
But state officials said fire evacuation orders will take precedence over COVID-19 blocking rules, and residents should plan to move to alternative locations if emergency evacuation orders are issued.
“What we don’t want is people’s indecision as to whether or not they should evacuate when we ask them to evacuate, so that evacuation prevails over any quarantine requirements that people may have,” Klemm said. (Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)