BURRAGATE, Australia — Another firefighter has died battling the Australian wildfire crisis and the prime minister said today his government was adapting and building resilience to the fire danger posed by climate change.
The firefighter — one of the few professionals among mainly volunteer brigades battling blazes across southeast Australia — died on Saturday near Omeo in eastern Victoria state, Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said. No details of the circumstances were released.
The tragedy brings the death toll to at least 27 people in a crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area larger than the U.S. state of Indiana since September. Four of the casualties were firefighters.
Authorities are using relatively benign conditions forecast in southeast Australia for a week or more to consolidate containment lines around scores of fires that are likely to burn for weeks without heavy rainfall. The reprieve from severe fire conditions promises to be the longest of the current fire season.
