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South Australians will be on high alert again tomorrow after residents in Adelaide’s northern suburbs were told to leave as an “out of control fire” burned just metres from their homes.
Authorities worked quickly in scorching weather to avoid a Christmas Day catastrophe but more dangerous conditions were expected
The grass fire near Konanda Road in Smithfield broke out about 12.30pm today in a large grass paddock behind the Munno Para shopping centre.
“We were getting ready to have lunch, we were like, ‘Oh we can smell smoke’,” witness Katelyn Whittmann said.
Residents were told to leave, roads were closed and the train line was shut down as the temperature topped 38 degrees.
“We had the police come in and tell us we had to evacuate and just move across the road here,” Tori Wittmann said.
Fire crews attacked the blaze from the sky, dropping load after load to halt the danger to surrounding homes, businesses and a nearby army cadet barracks.
“The aircraft are absolutely invaluable in assisting us in saving surrounding structures,” Metropolitan Fire Service commander Stuart Dawes said.
Crews had the upper hand within two hours and no homes were damaged.
But with more extreme heat on the forecast tomorrow, the threat posed by fires is still front of mind for authorities.
“If you live in this area, conditions will be dangerous for fire activity tomorrow as we see a combo of strong winds, high temps and dry air,” Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said, referring to a large orange highlighted area on the map stretching across much of southern Victoria west to Adelaide and Port Augusta.
The grassfire is burning in a direction towards Donnington Road in nearby Elizabeth North and both Boddington Road and Konanda Road in Smithfield.
“Conditions are continually changing,” the fire service said.
Adelaide was forecast to have the hottest Christmas Day for eight years, with temperatures topping 38 degrees in parts.
It was 33 degrees at the city’s airport by lunch time.
Parafield in the north neared 37 degrees and West Terrace was 35 degrees while Edinburgh eventually topped at at 38.2.
Increasing winds on Boxing Day will elevate the fire risk, with gusts of between 50km/h and 80km/h predicted.
The Mount Lofty Ranges and west coast of the state will be under total fire bans.
Locals have been warned not to take risks, with the state seeing some of the driest weather for years.
