All the blazes in Australia’s hard-hit state of New South Wales have been brought under control, signalling the end of a months-long crisis that claimed 33 lives nationwide, according to the firefighters.
“As of this afternoon, all fires in New South Wales have now been contained,” a Rural Fire Service spokesman said, as fresh rainfall helped extinguish fires that have burned along the east coast since September.
“It is very good news.”, he further added.
Earlier this month, according to the forecast, thunderstorm activity or the formation of mesoscale lows embedded within the coastal trough was possible.
Last month, a massive bushfire in the Orroral Valley south of Canberra was sparked by an Australian Defence Force (ADF) helicopter.
With severe flooding blanketing several north coast areas of the state, the NSW Emergency Service (SES) said they had received over 600 calls for assistance already.
On January 19, the Bureau of Meteorology in Victoria issued severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of the state and said that damaging winds and heavy rainfall were expected.
Earlier, hundreds of Australians were arrested for deliberately starting the devastating bushfires since September.
About 4,000 people in the town of Mallacoota in Victoria headed to the waterfront after the main road was cut off.
The impact of the bushfires has spread beyond affected communities, with heavy smoke engulfing the country’s second-largest city Melbourne and the national capital Canberra. Some government departments were shut in Canberra as the city’s air quality was once-again ranked the world’s poorest, according to independent online air-quality index monitor Air Visual.
The disaster has sparked growing public anger with Morrison. Rallies are planned on Friday to call on his government to step up efforts to tackle climate change, which experts say have helped fuel the fires.