Heatwave warnings as bushfires continue blazing across Australia

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Australia's bushfires intensify

Australia’s bushfires intensify

Temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius for a third consecutive day in Western Australia on Sunday as fires blazed out-of-control north of the capital city Perth, dpa news reported.

Since Wednesday, firefighters have been battling a blaze in Yanchep, some 56 kilometres north of Perth, which has so far burnt through nearly 12,000 hectares, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said.

New South Wales (NSW) sent a Boeing 737 air tanker, Australia’s largest firefighting aircraft, to Perth on Sunday to assist fire crews while the state itself still has 106 fires burning.

Sydney was again blanketed in a haze of smoke on Sunday, with extreme heat expected to worsen fire conditions in the coming week.

For weeks, a thick blanket of smoke has choked Sydney, resulting in air pollution 11 times worse than the typical “hazardous” level on Tuesday.

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Perth has seen record temperatures of up to 41 degrees Celsius over the weekend, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issuing heatwave warnings for southern and western areas of the country in the coming days.

The BOM has said that Australia could likely experience its hottest day on record this week, which currently stands at 50.7 degrees Celsius.

“It is not out of the realms of possibility that we could break our highest ever recorded temperature,” BOM meteorologist Diana Eadie was quoted by Australian broadcaster ABC as saying.

Since the bushfire season started early in October, six people have been killed and in NSW 724 homes have been destroyed.

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