Australia bushfires: Biggest rainfall in 20 years delivers much-needed relief
Firefighters are "over the moon" as the total number of active fires across New South Wales fell from 60 to 42 in a single day.
Friday 7 February 2020 07:57, UK
Heavy downpours have brought relief to wildfire-ravaged parts of Australia - reducing the number of current blazes by a third.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service said firefighters were "over the moon" as the number of bushfires across the state fell from 60 to 42 in a single day.
But the wet weather - the biggest rainfall in almost 20 years - has brought its own risks, with officials warning of flash floods and landslides.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said: "There's lots of smiles around the place. It is breaking the back of this fire season, no doubt.
"The rain is good for business and farms as well as being really good for quenching some of these fires we've been dealing with for many, many months.
"We don't want to see lots of widespread damage and disruption from flooding, but it is certainly a welcome change to the relentless campaign of hot, dry weather."
Mr Fitzsimmons said he was optimistic continued rainfall over the coming days would help firefighters in the state bring 17 "uncontained" bushfires under control.
"We expect rainfall to continue to fall across a lot of these firegrounds and that will result in a number of those being declared contained and hopefully we will be confident we won't see new ignitions from anywhere in those firegrounds," he added.
The long-running fires have damaged more than 11.7 million hectares (28.9 million acres) of land and destroyed 2,600 homes. An estimated one billion animals have also perished.
Victoria still had 21 bushfire warnings in place, though the rain was steadily making its way down the coast and into the northeast of the state.
Sydney alone was expected to receive as much as 130mm (5ins) of rain in the 24 hours to Saturday morning - the biggest one-day rainfall in 18 years - according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
"It was fantastic to wake up to much-needed rain this morning!" tweeted the city's Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
"Today has already been the wettest Sydney day in 15 months, and thankfully it's raining across NSW where we need it most."