Cooler weather helps Australian firefighters

Officials in South Australia on Sunday lowered the danger rating of a massive bushfire burning east of the state capital, Adelaide, as a cool change eased the hot and windy conditions that had fanned the flames.

"I can confirm that 12 homes have been destroyed and it's feared that a further 20 homes have also been lost," South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill told reporters.

"However, the conditions for firefighting have improved. The weather is cooler and the weather conditions will permit aerial firefighting," he said.

The state's Country Fire Service warned, however, that the fire, which broke out on Friday, was continuing to burn in all directions and still posed a threat to lives.

Livestock killed

DW correspondent Jessie Wingard, who is in Adelaide, said the fire was still out of control.

"Eleven and a half thousand acres (4,654 hectares) have been burned. Twelve houses have been confirmed as burned down. Twenty two people have been injured. Those are mostly firefighters... [from] smoke inhalation. Thousands of livestock have been lost and hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes," she said.

South Australian firefighters are being helped by counterparts from the neighboring states of Victoria and New South Wales, bringing the number of the crew battling the blaze to more than 800.

Residents of 19 communities had been forced to flee their homes, with officials saying on Saturday that the fire conditions were the worst since the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, which killed more than 70 people in South Australia and Victoria.

In Victoria, a fire that destroyed one home has been brought under control as rain arrived to aid firefighting efforts.

Bushfires are common in Australia between December and February at the height of the country's summer.

In 2009, 173 people were killed and thousands of homes destroyed when a massive bushfire devastated southern Victoria, a disaster dubbed "Black Saturday."

tj/ksb (AFP, AP)