Premier condemns 'acts of bastardy' as fires rage

High winds were expected to causemore than 80 bush fires raging around New South Wales to spread even further today.

The fires, some of which are believed to have been started by arsonists or by smokers tossing cigarette butts out of car windows, will add to the financial woes of farmers struggling to survive the worst drought for a generation. More than 250,000 acres of land have been blackened in the past four days.

The state premier Bob Carr, who toured fire-affected areas yesterday, condemned "acts of bastardry" by arsonists and told volunteer firefighters: "If you see an arsonist, pounce on him. Do whatever you like, and we'll pass a law to retrospectively fix it up."

As fire crews took advantage of a brief cool spell yesterday to build defences against a 15-mile wall of flames advancing on northern Sydney, Mr Carr warned: "It's a crunch day tomorrow."

Residents in bushland suburbs braced themselves, filling roof gutters with water and even mowing lawns to leave as little fuel as possible for the flames.

These are familiar scenes in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer, when hot winds from the arid interior fan firestorms along the heavily populated coastal fringe. This year there is an added element: a prolonged drought that threatens to make this bush fire season the worst in decades.

Phil Koperberg, the Rural Fire Service commissioner for New South Wales, said: "The immediate environs of Sydney have probably not faced a threat like this for 20 to 30 years."

Although the bush fire season has only just started, more than 40 homes have already been lost to fires in the Blue Mountains and to Sydney's north, south and west. Two people have died, including an 81-year-old man whose body was found in a burnt-out caravan.

Temperatures of up to 40C are forecast for today, together with strong winds and very low humidity. John Winter, a Rural Fire Service spokesman, said the greatest fear was that embers could be carried a long way, jumping containment lines into unburnt territory and starting new fires.

Firefighters have lit controlled fires in underbrush and grasslands ahead of fire fronts, in the hope of reducing the natural fuel available for the wildfires. They had been expecting at least two days of cooler weather, but yesterday forecasters warned that dangerous conditions were about to return.

More than 4,500 firefighters, mainly volunteers, are battling the blazes, helped by reinforcements from neighbouring states. Yesterday crews managed to contain one of the worst blazes, near the village of Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains.

Sydney remained ringed by what Mr Koperberg described as an almost unprecedented line of fire, from the Nepean River west of the city to the mouth of the Hawkesbury River in the north. The drop in winds left smoke hanging over the city, and Sydneysiders woke to a purple-grey sky.