Wildfires in Southeast Australia Destroy More Than 70 Homes, Kill Livestock

More than 70 homes were destroyed as bushfires swept through the seaside town of Tathra in southeastern Australia at the weekend.

Soaring temperatures and wind gusts fanned the fires about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Sydney, causing the blaze to jump a river and race through the town of about 1,600 people, Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons of the New South Wales state Rural Fire Service told Sky Television on Monday.

There were no reports of deaths, he said. Several schools in the area will be closed today.

Thousands of livestock have been killed in the fast-moving fires that swept through more than 1,000 hectares of land in the dairy-farming region, emergency services said.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Agribusiness Homeowners Australia