SYDNEY, Dec 26: Bushfires raged in Australia, licking at the outskirts of Australia’s biggest city on Wednesday, as weary firefighters fought for a second night to save houses and evacuated hundreds of people.

“I have never seen anything like this. It’s hell, it’s just hell,” wept one ash-covered woman after a blaze swept through her southern Sydney suburb on the edge of a national park.

There were no reports of death or serious injury in any of the more than 100 bushfires that have blazed across New South Wales (NSW) state since Christmas Day, destroying scores of homes and closing highways.

Police and fire officials said at least 140 homes and properties had been destroyed in the past two days, most south and west of the city, as blazes stunned firefighters with their speed and ferocity.

NSW Rural Fire Commissioner Phil Koperberg described some blazes as “fire storms” 30 to 60 metres (90 to 180 feet) high.

“We have not seen fire behaviour like this for 20 to 30 years,” Koperberg told Australian Prime Minister John Howard as he inspected some of the worst areas in Sydney’s Blue Mountains.

Koperberg said the fire emergency could last for 10 days.

Some 5,000 firefighters, reinforced by hundreds of firefighters arriving from other states, are battling the fires.

The Baulkham Hills fire saw Sydney ringed by fires on Wednesday night, with blazes in the Blue Mountains to the west and The Royal National Park to the south.

A line of fire stretched almost unbroken along a 25-km some 15kms from Sydney’s southern suburbs. Hundreds of people from the southern suburb of Heathcote on the edge of The Royal National Park were evacuated overnight as strong southerly winds faned the massive fire.

The fires across the state have cut power to some 12,000 homes after burning trees crashed onto powerlines. Residents in Sydney’s outlying southern suburbs have been told to boil water for drinking after a fire destroyed a water supply station.

After fleeing their homes on Christmas Day many residents returned on Wednesday to find their houses smouldering ruins.

In Cedar Ridge Road in Kurrajong in the Blue Mountains, six houses were burnt to the ground.

“There’s lots of tears and there will be lots more tears,” said Cedar Ridge Road resident Robyn Wells as she and her husband Lincoln inspected the charred-remains of their home.—Reuters