SYDNEY, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- New South Wales Rural Fire Services (NSW RFS), the lead combat agency for bush fires in the Australian state of NSW, declared on Saturday morning that a total fire ban is in place for the Greater Sydney Region and eight other areas for the day.
"Today, hot, dry and windy conditions are forecast across most of the state, with areas of Extreme and High fire danger," said the authority in a Facebook post, adding that 57 fires were burning across NSW as of 9 a.m. local time on Saturday, with nine yet to be contained.
NSW RFS said that firefighters and incident management personnel were continuing their work to strengthen containment lines around these fires. It asked people in the vicinity of these fires to continue monitoring conditions and stay up to date with the latest information via the mobile phone app and its website.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the first heatwave of this summer will reach its peak across NSW, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius likely to span from Western Australia's north-west all the way to Parramatta in the Greater Sydney Region. ■