Bushfires Destroy Properties in Sydney Region as Man Killed - Bloomberg

Firefighters battled to contain bushfires that have destroyed dozens of homes in the Sydney region as authorities warned Australia’s most-populous state faces hazardous conditions for months to come.

A 63-year-old man died protecting his home from a fire at Lake Munmorah on the New South Wales Central Coast, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) north of Sydney, NSW police said in a statement on its website.

“We’re seeing some of the worst bushfires experienced around Sydney in living memory,” state Premier Barry O’Farrell told Sky News today. “Emergency services are in for a long tough summer.”

The NSW Rural Fire Service said crews are fighting more than 30 uncontained blazes across the state. Cooler temperatures and lower winds today cut the number of emergency warnings to one from seven yesterday. The Insurance Council of Australia declared yesterday’s blazes a “catastrophe” and said it had received more than 200 claims for property loss or damage, with many more claims expected.

Nine state schools were closed due to the fires, according to the NSW education department.

Newcastle Airport, a regional hub about 175 kilometers north of Sydney, re-opened today after a nearby bushfire forced it to cancel services yesterday.

“It’s heartbreaking to see so many people lose houses,” said Matt Poynting, a 22-year-old resident of the Blue Mountains region about 80 kilometers west of Sydney. “In the last 25 years, this is probably in the top three bushfires we’ve had.”

While the haze that blanketed Sydney’s skyline yesterday mostly cleared, the smell of smoke was still in the air today. The Bureau of Meteorology forecast a maximum temperature of 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit) for the city today, about 12 degrees cooler than yesterday.

The nation’s bushfire season has started early after the country’s warmest September on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. In February 2009, wild fires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed 150 homes in the worst blazes in Australian history.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Sin in Sydney at msin12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net

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Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg Television's "Lunch Money" Host Adam Johnson reports on today's top news stories. (Source: Bloomberg)