Residents of a bushfire-ravaged region of Australia were given two hours to return home to pack their belongings before Christmas on Tuesday as emergency crews battled the blaze.
Communities around the Grampians, in Victoria, were evacuated amid warnings from authorities that conditions there in the coming days could be the worst of Australia's worst fire season, the so-called “Black Summer” of 2019-20.
The wildfires have already burned more than 41,000 hectares (101,000 acres) of land in the past week, but there have been no deaths or property loss.
The intense heat forecast for Boxing Day has also prompted a series of fire warnings across the country.
Across Victoria, temperatures are expected to reach 40C (104F) and be accompanied by strong dry winds, while parts of South Australia and New South Wales could also face bushfire conditions from Thursday to Friday.
“We expect to see extreme fire danger across most of the state,” said Luke Hegarty, a spokesman for Victoria's state fire control centre.
“This is the most significant fire danger the state has seen — in the entire part of the state we're talking about — since the Black Summer. It is important that people understand that Thursday is a day with serious potential,” he added.
Four interstate firefighting forces and two incident management teams – made up of more than 100 personnel – will land in Victoria in the coming days to provide respite for emergency crews working around the clock to battle the current fires.
The decision to give families around the Grampians temporary access to their homes “to get Christmas items … presents and the like” on Tuesday morning was made by Chief Country Fire Service (CFA) officer Jason Heffernan.
“(This is) to ensure that if the residents of Halls Gap are going to be moved for Christmas, at least they will have what they need,” he told Seven's Sunrise programme.
Mary Ann Brown, who lives on the southern edge of the Grampians National Park, told the ABC her community was on edge ahead of the holidays.
“We won't be out of the woods until we get some really good rain, and that might not come until March or April, so it's going to be a long summer.”
Parts of Australia were on heightened alert for bushfire danger this summer, after several quieter seasons than the 2019-20 fires, which were linked to hundreds of deaths and covers 24 million hectares of land.
The country has lurched from disaster to disaster in recent years, experiencing both record floods and extreme heat as it feels the effects of climate change.