New Wildfires Flare Up in Australia

Hundreds of firefighters, supported by water bomber aircraft, are battling new outbreaks of bushfires in two Australian states.

In Victoria, authorities completed an 18-mile long firebreak around a blaze near Benalla, in the northeast, which has burned through 62 square miles of scrub and farmland.

Firefighters struggled to stop a separate fire from spreading on Mount Hermit, near the border with New South Wales.

It’s very difficult terrain in steep, mountainous country said a Country Fire Authority spokesman. There are 11 aircraft trying to water-bomb the fire to contain it until our ground crews can reach it.

In New South Wales, a wildfire is burning out of control 25 miles north of the town of Dubbo.

The fire, sparked by lightning strikes last Friday, has destroyed more than 70 square miles of bush land and is threatening several farm areas.

Another blaze near the Snowy Mountains caused stock losses among sheep farms as it swept along a 10-mile front.