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NSW Rural Fire Service map shows massive extent of bushfires

Everyone knows the bushfires have been huge but one map has vividly shown the devastation with blazes having burned through an area half the size of Tasmania.

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The devastating fires that have blighted New South Wales have now burnt through 2.7 million hectares of land. That’s an area more than twice the size of Sydney or approaching half the size of Tasmania decimated by blazes.

A map has graphically demonstrated the extent of the fires. Uploaded to social media by NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, the map is singed grey illustrating where land has been burned or is still ablaze.

This stretches across vast regions close to the state’s coast from the Queensland border south to almost Victoria, skirting, major towns and cities.

The fires have been so ferocious in northern NSW that a single patch of flame-scorched earth now extends from north of Grafton to south of Taree, a distance of more than 300kms.

A second large area of bushfires has burned through a swath of land to the north west of Sydney in the Wollemi and Yengo national parks between Gosford, Lithgow and Mudgee.

Several fires in this area merged last week to form one “mega fire” with a 60km front.

These fires, and other large blazes to the south of Blue Mountains, have been chiefly responsible for the choking skies and terrible air quality afflicting Sydney.

A NSW Rural Fire Service map vividly shows the extent of the state's bushfires this season. Picture: RFS.
A NSW Rural Fire Service map vividly shows the extent of the state's bushfires this season. Picture: RFS.

Massive fires have also hit areas to the north of Batemans Bay and north west of Glen Innes.

Mr Fitzsimmons said the fires this season had a total perimeter of 19,235 kilometres. That’s the equivalent distance of Sydney to Perth four times over.

“Of this the current 87 fires, incorporate 2.1 million hectares and a perimeter of 11,095 kms,” he wrote on Twitter.

He thanked “all involved” in fighting the “extraordinary season” of bushfires.

Around 3000 firefighters are tacking conflagrations across the state.

So far this season, 724 homes have been lost and six people have perished.

Today, Sydney residents were warned to brace for “unprecedented losses” as the bushfires on the city’s doorstep look set to breach its suburbs later this summer, an ex-fire chief warned.

Greg Mullins, who was Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner from 2003 to 2017, said Sydney will likely experience devastation greater than 1994, when hundreds of suburban homes were lost.

“The worst is to come because it’s going to get hotter and drier and there’s no significant rain in the outlooks,” Mr Mullins told AAP.

A cyclist rides in Blackwattle Bay as smoke haze from bushfires in New South Wales blankets the CBD in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Steven Saphore/AAP
A cyclist rides in Blackwattle Bay as smoke haze from bushfires in New South Wales blankets the CBD in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Steven Saphore/AAP
RFS volunteers and NSW Fire and Rescue officers protect a home near Gospers Mountain north west of Sydney last month. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP
RFS volunteers and NSW Fire and Rescue officers protect a home near Gospers Mountain north west of Sydney last month. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

“We’ve got massive fires that are too big to put out without rain. They are going to get bigger and they are going to come into Sydney suburbs, the South Coast, the Central Coast.”

Mr Mullins said that was three times the previous record number of homes lost, with destruction this year so far confined to regional areas. “Formerly all of our big losses have been places like the Blue Mountains, Sutherland, Warringah and Lane Cove,” he warned.

“The fires haven’t even reached Sydney suburbs yet. People need to brace themselves.

“They are going to see unprecedented losses, unprecedented fire, health issues with smoke, heatwaves and the science is in – this is all underpinned by a warming climate.”

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/nsw-rural-fire-service-map-shows-massive-extent-of-bushfires/news-story/0bd5be470d55ac2f8b06922e1a72b6c5