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Unstoppable 'Mega fire' Forms North of Sydney

Agence France-Presse

   SYDNEY - Several Australian bushfires have combined to form a "mega
   fire" that is burning out of control across a swathe of land north of
   Sydney, authorities said Friday, warning they cannot contain the blaze.

   Rob Rogers, New South Wales Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner,
   said "there are probably more than eight fires in all" that have merged
   to form what has been dubbed a "mega fire" in an area of national park
   forest.

   The blaze was burning across 300,000 hectares, an area roughly 60
   kilometers across, within an hour's drive of Australia's largest city,
   which was again subsumed in a soup of toxic smoke.

   "There is just fire that whole way" said Rogers, who added that
   firefighters could do little more than get any residents out, protect
   property and hope for an end to fire-friendly dry and windy conditions.

   We "cannot stop these fires, they will just keep burning until
   conditions ease, and then we'll try to do what we can to contain them,"
   he told public broadcaster ABC.

   "The best thing we can do is try to protect property and people as much
   as we can."

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