Zee Media Bureau/Himanshu Kapoor
Sydney: About 200 houses have been destroyed in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney after the intense wildfire in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales.
One of the huge bush fire which is still burning, started on Wednesday the same day when the Australian military exercise took place using explosive. The training exercise was conducted near the town of Lithgow in the Blue Mountains region.
The military is now investigating the circumstances of the fire and whether it was that exercise that caused the massive wildfire. There are around 80 fires burning across New South Wales state with the Lithgow fire being one the major one.
Lithgow town has been hard hit by the huge fire with train, carriages and equipment destroyed.
With the firefighters prepared for worsening conditions, the destruction toll is set to rise.
So far one casualty has been reported where a 63-year-old man died of a heart attack while protecting his house from the fire. The search for the survivors and the victims is on as the police moves deeper into the destruction zone.
Wildfires, which are common in Australia, normally don’t happen in large numbers until the summer.