CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Sydney city is today being smothered by the thickest smoke cloud of this unprecedented and record-breaking bushfire season.
It is being blown from large fires near Warragamba Dam and the Wollombi National Park. Although most of Sydney has had some relief from the smoke over the last 24 hours, it has reportedly returned with a vengeance this morning.
Residents woke to the haze this morning, brought in by north-westerly winds. Three weeks in to the state’s catastrophic bushfires, NSW is today bracing for a day of soaring temperatures and widespread “very high” to “severe” fire danger.
Greater Sydney is on extreme alert today as temperatures are expected to rise to the high 30s and 40 with strengthening winds, and possible thunderstorms later in the afternoon will fan existing fires and ignite new ones.
Well over 1000 houses have been lost in NSW, and west Brisbane now experiencing catastrophic blazes coming through Ipswich, as well as uncontrollable fires breaking out in Victoria. Rescue personnel and the few politicians who haven’t nailed their flag to climate change skepticism are declaring a national emergency.
For one North Sydney resident, Sinclair Hopscotch-Durack (33), this announcement is well overdue.
“About time” says Sinclair.
The Kirribilli-based share-portfolio-manager who claims to have been ‘working on an app’ for the last six years, says this is getting ridiculous.
“You pay a fair bit of money for these kinds of Harbour views” he says, pointing to the interest-free loan he had to beg dad for when he and his wife outgrew their free-standing Bondi four-bedder.
“Like, so far I’ve paid $2.5M – and that’s only just half of what it’s worth”
“These fires are really starting to piss me off. I can’t even see the Opera House”
“Can’t they just put them out already? haha”
“I’ve had the air-con cranked all morning”
