Bushfires
Faced with an inferno, Gabrielle had to make a heartbreaking choice
At 4am on New Year’s Eve 2019 Daniel Lafferty and Gabrielle Powell were 45 minutes away from a wrenching decision.
- by Melinda Ham
Latest
Updated
Extreme weather
One killed and another injured as NSW battered by wild winds
Strong winds also forced the cancellation of 90 flights to and from Sydney Airport, while authorities battled bushfires across the state.
- by Nick Newling and Riley Walter
Updated
Weather
‘Astonishing intensity of heat’: Australia just recorded its hottest ever winter’s day
A freakishly hot end to winter has sent national climate records tumbling, sparked wildfires around NSW, and led to early closures and patchy snow at many ski resorts.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons and Bianca Hall
Updated
Emergency services
Fire in Sydney’s south-west downgraded after emergency warning
Residents had been told to seek shelter as firefighters water bombed the out-of-control blaze near Liverpool.
- by Riley Walter and Nick Newling
Heat records are toppling in the northern hemisphere. What does it mean for Australia’s summer?
Temperatures have topped 50 degrees in 10 countries around the world in the past year, but Australia could experience a cooler, wetter summer.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
Exclusive
California bushfires
On the firefront: Aussies lend expert hand to battle US blazes
Sydney Morning Herald chief photographer Nick Moir has joined NSW RFS members and thousands of firefighters from across the US who are attempting to slow the destructive progress of the raging California Fire Park fires.
- by Nick Moir
Wildfires across Turkey threaten Anzac graves on Gallipoli peninsula
At the site where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where 22 soldiers from New Zealand are interred.
- by Rob Harris
Exclusive
Victoria bushfires
Court slaps CFA over decision that ‘sent a shiver down the spine’ of CFA volunteers
The CFA rejected the medical opinions of six experts and cut compensation to a traumatised firefighter based on the assessment of one dissenting psychiatrist.
- by Cameron Houston
The up-and-coming tourist town with barely a latte in sight
Sydneysiders and a host of enterprising locals are keen to reinvent a NSW country town that was almost wiped off the map.
- by Catherine Naylor
Political fight sparks as electricity network axes timber power poles
Essential Energy, the electricity distributor that covers 95 per cent of NSW, is switching to composite poles to make its network more resilient in bushfires.
- by Caitlin Fitzsimmons
‘Long-term pain’: Scientists warn against WA’s prescribed burn regime
Is it time the government rethinks its prescribed burning practices? New research says it’s making forests more flammable, not less, but the state stands firm.
- by Sarah Brookes
Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/bushfires-5vj