Bushfires rage unchecked as winds whip in

Matt Glancy, a volunteer with the Rural Fire Service, went to bed exhausted at 9am on Friday after an 18-hour shift fighting bush fires in Australia's lower Blue Mountains. An hour later, his wife woke him. Flames were licking at their back gate in the tiny town of Winmalee.

Mr Glancy grabbed a garden hose; fortunately, reinforcements arrived within minutes. He was back on duty yesterday with Winmalee Fire Unit 862, backburning bushland and setting up buffer zones around fires before the return of hazardous weather today.

After raging unchecked for the past week, 100 fires burning around New South Wales were forecast to spread at a ferocious pace, whipped by strong winds and blistering heat. The NSW Premier, Bob Carr, warned that today could be "one of the most potentially dangerous days we've ever faced as a community".

The Blue Mountains – a World Heritage-listed national park 40 miles west of Sydney – has been badly affected by the summer fires, which swept across the state on Christmas Day. Other black spots include the Hunter Valley vineyards, the south-western suburbs of Sydney and parts of the coast.

Mr Carr, who cut short a holiday in China, described the "exceptionally forceful and intensive fires" as the worst in recent history. While the fires – many believed to be the work of arsonists – have claimed no lives, they have devoured vast swathes of bushland, destroyed 150 homes and forced the evacuation of 4,500 people.

As a 370-mile arc of flames stretched across the state yesterday, firefighting efforts in the Blue Mountains centred on a massive fire burning within a few miles of several towns.

Some settlements have already suffered. In Kurrajong, seven properties in one street, Cedar Ridge Road, were flattened after a 120ft-high fireball roared through on Christmas Day. Cheryl Ward's neighbours, who had gone away, lost their house. But the flames just skimmed Mrs Ward's home, leaving it miraculously intact.

"We saw smoke coming over the ridge just after lunch," she said yesterday, surveying her charred front lawn. "Suddenly the police turned up and shouted 'Get out, get out!' I just grabbed the dogs and got in the car. By the time I reversed out, there was fire all around."

Mr Glancy's unit spent yesterday on patrol, driving through a ghostly landscape of scorched earth and blackened, twisted trees. Mr Glancy joined the volunteer Rural Fire Service as a community-minded move in an area notoriously vulnerable to bushfires. Founded by farmers, the service has become an institution in rural Australia.

Anthony Church, a member of the same unit, has been fighting fires since he was 15. His two brothers, sister and sister-in-law are also in the service. "It's a big culture up here," he said. "We've got a history of major fires and a lot of families get involved."

Usually it is Mr Glancy's wife who worries about him; last week, it was his turn to fret, knowing that she and their 10-month-old triplets were at risk while he was out. "I phoned home one night and no one answered; I felt sick to the stomach," he said. "Thankfully, she was just in the shower."