Dry weather hampers firefighters

Dense smoke over much of Sydney continued to hamper firemen today, as they fought to contain bushfires that have devastated New South Wales in the past four days.

With weather conditions expected to deteriorate later today, ahead of a weekend of scorching temperatures and strong winds, emergency workers are racing against time to control the arc of fire that has ringed Sydney's outer suburbs.

More than 100 blazes are still burning across the state, with a 15-mile fire front five miles south of the Blue Mountains. The smoke is so dense that satellite imaging and infra-red technology are being used to map the fire fronts. Cooler temperatures today gave emergency services a brief respite but fire chiefs warned that this could be the calm before the storm.

Fire Services spokesman Mark Sullivan said the weather forecast pointed to "a nasty couple of days ahead". Sydney's weather bureau is forecasting top temperatures of 30 degrees celsius tomorrow and 37 degrees on Sunday.

Rural Fire Services public affairs director John Winter said: "With such high temperatures, high winds and low humidity we are likely to see fires take a substantial and uncontrollable run.

"Crews are doing the work that they can right now to prevent any great loss of property but it's going to be a difficult weekend."

With about 5,000 firefighters already in position, fire chief Phil Koperberg said they were facing a "grave situation" as fires continued to burn out of control. He added: "This will be a protracted campaign when assets across the board will be under threat."

Police have arrested three teenage boys who were seen lighting fires near Wollongong, south of Sydney. in Canberra, a motorist made a citizen's arrest when he saw a youth lighting a fire near Parliament House.