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Australian Fires in Pilliga National Park, New South Wales

Terra satellite image of fires in Pillaga National Park, Australia
Rural Fire Service (RFS) crews in New South Wales, Australia are working hard to contain a bush fire in the Pilliga National Park.

Rural Fire Service (RFS) crews in New South Wales, Australia are working hard to contain a bush fire in the Pilliga National Park. The blaze began on January 17, 2018 and is still burning. The extremely high heat that Australia continues to experience this summer plagues firefighter efforts and keeps the blaze burning. The fire has now burned close to 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares) of bush and forest land. Six firefighting aircraft and 35 firefighters have been used to battle the blaze.

The fire operations officer said weather would be a major factor in how crews would battle the fire from today. It is predicted that the wind will change direction and the prediction of a northern wind change will assist firefighters in stopping fire spread and will allow firefighters to contain the fire before the next predicted wind change over the weekend.

This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on January 22, 2018. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner