this fire is in the sydney suburb of
northmead
it's just one of dozens of wildfires
that have been burning across the state
of new south wales
it's also reminiscent of the scenes that
played out during the devastating
bushfires in australia
last summer huge swathes of land were
destroyed then
and the authorities are warning
australians not to become complacent
this time around
we cannot fall into a false sense of
security uh the community out there
unfortunately thinks that after the last
season
uh we were we are not at risk of
bushfire
the reality is 90 percent of the state
is still untouched
by bushfire heat waves are not unusual
in australia at this time of year
but with late november temperatures
setting records
residents of australia's most populous
state have been asked to be extra
vigilant
the state's fire service issued a total
fire ban for large areas of the state
over the weekend
saying there was a very high to severe
fire danger
residents of new south wales will have
to stay alert
with high temperatures forecast in parts
of the state
for several days to come and i'm joined
now by roger maynard a journalist based
in sydney australia
roger can you give us a sense of the
scale how much of australia's east coast
is currently affected by this heat wave
but predominantly it's part of most most
parts of new south wales
fires are continuing to rage across the
uh
the state although cooler winds have
brought a temporary relief
to much of the much of new south wales
today although
forecast of the the meteorologists are
forecasting a return to heat wave
conditions tomorrow
today has been a much more variable 24
degrees compared with 40 degrees over
the weekend
and those easing of conditions have
allowed
firefighters to take control of the many
blazes uh
scattered across new south wales they're
about 50 at the moment but
many of these are in fairly remote areas
so there have no
immediate threat to human life or to
property however fire chiefs are saying
that it's no time to be complacent
now they're saying 90 of new south wales
is still
susceptible to fire with the spokesman
saying the past weekend
was an ominous sign for both the weeks
and the months
ahead they say firefighters are on the
case already
do you think they are better prepared
this year than what we saw with last
year's
deadly blazes well
i think they are they've learned a lot
there's been a major inquiry in new
south wales uh uh earlier this year into
the course of the fires
and how better to tackle them in the in
the future
um one new strategy which will be
introduced as from tomorrow
is to send aircraft out with uh to every
major fire accompanying the appliances
so fire appliances can be directed more
accurately to
the source of the fire and water bombing
aircraft can also be
flown in to attack the the flames as
well
of course the last summer's fires uh
coincided with
an intense period of drought which
turned much of the countryside into a
tinderbox but
over the past few months we've seen
quite a bit of rain in new south wales
and across australia's eastern seaboard
which means that there's less of a
chance of
the the ground being tinderbox dry this
time and less of a chance of
a major catastrophe such as we saw uh
earlier this year
i will certainly be hoping for the best
journalist roger maynard in sydney thank
you very much