SYDNEY, Feb. 3 (Reuters) – Smoke mist covered Australia’s fourth largest city, Perth, on Wednesday after a forest fire that destroyed dozens of houses, complicating a rigid blockade after the first COVID-19 case in Western Australia in more than 10 months.
Authorities said the hot, dry conditions that fueled the fires in Perth’s northeastern suburbs had eased somewhat overnight.
“We had a better night than the night before, we did not have the impact of the fire on any property during the night and also some milder conditions allowed us to complete some screening,” State Fire Commissioner Darren Klemm told reporters.
Klemm upwardly revised the number of homes lost in the fires from 59 to 71, while urging residents to remain vigilant as erratic winds can reignite some fires. No deaths were reported in the fires, the origins of which are still unknown.
“It will continue to be a challenging fire for us for the next three, four or five days,” said Klemm.
However, favorable weather may bring a truce with possible rains over the weekend and temperatures are expected to drop to around 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days from the mid-30s, officials said.
A tropical low in the north of the state has brought heavy rain and strong winds and the system could move south bringing humid weather in the coming days, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.
Two million residents of Perth, the state capital, are under five-day blockade until Friday, after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for the highly contagious variant of COVID-19 first detected in Britain -Brittany.
Residents must stay at home, except for essential work, health, grocery 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 must plan to move to alternate locations if emergency evacuation orders are issued.
“What we don’t want is the indecision of people about whether or not to evacuate when we ask them to be evacuated, so that the evacuation cancels any quarantine requirements that people may have,” said Klemm. (Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)