Sydney smoke ‘unlikely to clear for days’
The harbour bridge was barely visible on Thursday. Photo: Facebook/Andrew Parkinson
Sydneysiders have been warned the thick smoke haze covering the city will remain for days, as the air quality plummeted to “hazardous” levels on Thursday for the second time this week.
The Harbour City’s landmarks were barely visible as smoke from dozens of bushfires burning in NSW settled over Sydney, the Illawarra, North Coast and Central Coast.
Authorities warned children, the elderly and anyone with heart or lung conditions should avoid exercising outdoors.
It comes after Sydney was shrouded in smoke on Tuesday, when residents woke to a haze which cleared by mid-afternoon.
However, the NSW Rural Fire Service warned it was here to stay this time.
Several locations in greater Sydney had an air quality Index (AQI) over 1000 on Thursday morning. Anything more than 200 is considered “hazardous”.
Smoke from bush fires burning in NSW is settling across broad locations including Sydney and the Illawarra. This smoke is unlikely to clear out of these areas today. Remember only report unattended fires to 000 and not just smoke. #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/r5lbjqBUwT
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) November 20, 2019
Dr Richard Broome from NSW Health advised schools to keep children inside.
“They’re often more active particularly outdoors so they’re more likely to inhale the smoke in large quantities,” he said.
“It’s important that if you do have children [to] just try and keep them indoors or discourage them from exercising too much outside.”
Total fire bans are in place across 12 NSW regions, with hot and windy conditions forecast for much of the state and temperatures set to reach into the high 30s and low 40s in the south and west.
Air quality across NSW early on Thursday. Source: Environment NSW
James Morris from the RFS said the fire threat was still high in areas where a total fire ban had not been declared.
“Over the past 12 or so weeks, we have seen fires do more destruction under these conditions than we have at the more elevated fire danger ratings,” he said.
“It’s important people remain vigilant.
“There’s very high to severe fire dangers and that’ll be bolstered by some winds that we’re expecting to get up to 40 to 50 kilometres per hour, especially in the south western parts of NSW.”
