Aircraft are fighting the Sydney fire and authorities fear they could not control it days ago

Arab weather - fires broke out in the vast area of the east coast of Australia on Tuesday and destroyed some houses and covered Sydney smoke emitted from the fire authorities are afraid not to be able to control it before next week.

Aircraft dropped fire-retardant materials from above to quell forest fires threatening homes in Sydney's northern suburbs. Television footage showed that some of the material missed the fire and painted pink and red houses and cars.

By evening, officials had responded to 11 emergency warnings in New South Wales, where nearly half of the 70 fires across the state had spiraled out of control in what were described as “catastrophic” conditions.

"The task of properly controlling these fires to contain and trap them and then extinguish them is not easy," Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, told reporters in Sydney.

"Therefore, we have a long way to go before we can say that we are satisfied with the fire situation ... especially in northern New South Wales, given the sheer size of the fires that are still raging."

The extent of the destruction is not yet known, as the dangerous situation is expected to continue until the evening and then repeat on Friday and early next week.

Fitzsimmons said some firefighters suffered injuries including fractures and heat stress.

Forest fires pose a common and deadly threat in Australia's dry summer, but their ferocity and early arrival in the southern hemisphere spring surprised many.

The flames are spreading in extremely dry conditions after three years of drought in parts of New South Wales and Queensland, which experts say are exacerbated by climate change.

An unprecedented combination of high temperatures and high winds are fueling the current fires that have killed three people and destroyed more than 150 homes over the weekend.

Source: Reuters