A first contingent of US firefighters arrived in Australia Monday to bolster a multinational force battling deadly wildfires that have burnt more than a million hectares of countryside. After two days of training in local conditions, the Americans will join Canadian and New Zealand firefighters already reinforcing battle-weary Australian brigades fighting the summer onslaught, officials said.
Some 20 US personnel who touched down in Melbourne, the capital of worst-hit Victoria state in the south of the country, will be followed by 84 more in the next two days, fire authorities said.
"The arrival of our American colleagues is very welcome and timely," said the state's assistant chief fire officer Alan Goodwin. "It's still January so we have a long way to go before the end of the summer."
Since early December, blazes that have also ravaged New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania have claimed at least two lives, injured scores of firefighters, destroyed dozens of homes and killed thousands of livestock.
Heavy rain in recent days helped contain a massive 368,000-hectare fire in the east of Victoria state but three other major infernos — the largest covering 657,000 hectares — are still raging out of control.
Officials said a decision on where to deploy the US firefighters would be made later in the week, when warmer temperatures and dry northerly winds were expected to return.
"Back-up from interstate and overseas helps to further increase our strong fire management capabilities and introduce some valuable exchange," Goodwin said.
A blaze in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney, Australia's largest city, forced the closure of two major highways Monday, causing major traffic chaos.
Source: Agence France-Presse
