Forest Fire Scorches Dozens Of Houses In Australia, Firefighters Killed

UNSPLASH/Issy Bailey ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - A firefighter was killed while battling a blaze that destroyed about 40 houses in Australia's two states.

As reported by ABC News, the 59-year-old man was hit by a fallen tree on Sunday night while battling a forest fire near the city of Burahdelah, New South Wales, which has scorched 3,500 hectares of the forest and destroyed four houses over the weekend.

Commissioner of the Pedestrian Fire Department Trent Prihatin said firefighters were expected to fight the blaze for days.

There were 52 forest fires that broke out in New South Wales on Monday, December 8 and nine of them were still out of control. A total of 20 houses have been destroyed over the weekend in the state.

In the island state of Tasmania, 19 houses were destroyed by weekend forest fires in the coastal community of Dolphin totaling, local government official Dick Shaw told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The fire was extinguished on Monday, but the road to the area is still closed and residents are not yet safe to return to their homes.