<figure id="attachment_3251896" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3251896" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3251896" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/30c7e3e7-bushfires.jpg" alt="bushfires" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3251896" class="wp-caption-text">Firefighters have been working to contain blazes dotted across the states of Victoria and New South Wales. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
SYDNEY: Millions of Australians were Thursday warned to prepare for a stifling heatwave stoking the risk of &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; bushfires across swathes of the country.
Temperatures are forecast to soar past 40C in parts of southeast Australia, fuelling some of the most dangerous bushfire conditions seen since the &#8220;Black Summer&#8221; blazes of 2019-2020.
Victoria Country Fire Authority boss Jason Heffernan said the fire danger rating for some rural areas would hit &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; by Friday.
&#8220;This is the worst conditions that fire can burn in,&#8221; he told national broadcaster ABC.
&#8220;Australian homes aren&#8217;t designed to withstand fire conditions that have been predicted in some parts of the state.
&#8220;Which is why we&#8217;re asking the community to make preparations today.&#8221;
Firefighters are already trying to contain blazes dotted across the states of Victoria and New South Wales.
Authorities fear a small number of properties have been destroyed near the rural town of Longwood, about 150km north of Victoria&#8217;s capital Melbourne.
Government forecaster Sarah Scully said a band of &#8220;extreme&#8221; heat had settled across the country.
&#8220;There&#8217;s also dry thunderstorms forecast across Victoria and southern New South Wales,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;Those dry thunderstorms have very little rainfall in them, but they can ignite new fires.&#8221;
The &#8220;Black Summer&#8221; bushfires raged across Australia&#8217;s eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing swathes of forest, destroying thousands of homes and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.
Australia&#8217;s climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since 1910, researchers have found, fuelling increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns over both land and sea.
Australia remains one of the world&#8217;s largest producers and exporters of gas and coal, two key fossil fuels that are blamed for global heating.

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