Wildfires rage across Australia amid searing heat

Firefighters battled scores of wildfires raging across southeastern Australia on Tuesday as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that blistering temperatures and high winds had led to “catastrophic” conditions in some areas.

No deaths have been reported, although officials in Tasmania were still trying to find around 100 residents who have been missing since last week when a fire tore through the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, destroying around 90 homes. On Tuesday, police said no bodies were found during preliminary checks of the ruined houses.

“You don’t get conditions worse than this,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said. “We are at the catastrophic level and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option.”

Catastrophic threat level is the most severe rating.

Wildfires have razed 20,000 hectares of forests and farmland across southern Tasmania since Friday. In New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, the fires had burned through more than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land. All state forests and national parks were closed as a precaution and total fire bans were in place with temperatures surpassing 45 degrees Celsius in some areas.

In Victoria state, fire officials said two people were treated for minor burns and four people for smoke inhalation. Up to 20 properties in the town of Chepstowe west of Melbourne had reportedly been hit by a fire, though officials said it was too early to know the extent of the damage, a Victoria Country Fire Authority spokeswoman said.