
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994                   TAG: 9401080167
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA                                LENGTH: Short

BUSH FIRES SWEEP AUSTRALIAN SUBURBS

Tree-lined streets exploded into infernos Saturday while thousands of people jammed their belongings into cars and fled huge brush and forest fires raging in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia's biggest city.

More than 125 forest fires were blazing today along the 750-mile eastern seaboard of New South Wales state. Police suspect more than half the fires burning in southeast Australia were deliberately lit.

Witnesses reported seeing flames 80 feet high and walls of fire miles long racing through bushland.

Fifty houses were destroyed, many burning in suburbs as close as five miles from downtown Sydney. Hundreds more were threatened.

Thousands of residents were evacuated.

Ambulance crews treated hundreds for smoke inhalation and at least 22 people were hospitalized. Two firefighters and a civilian died earlier this week.

A big new fire flared up today at suburban Terrey Hills, about 12 miles north of the center of Sydney. Hundreds more residents were evacuated.

In the rugged and tinder-dry Blue Mountains, 50 miles west of Sydney, a great firestorm sliced across dense forest, threatening three small towns.

Summer temperatures soared to above 104 degrees. Meteorologists said rain was not expected for days.

"It's already a major disaster and we're now expecting the absolute worst," said Shane Bryant, of the Bushfire Services Department.

by CNB