NSW fires: Gospers Mountain fire rages towards Mount Piper power station – live | Australia news

Sad news from the Mount Tomah botanic gardens in the Blue Mountains, which were affected by the Gospers Mountain fire.

The director of horticulture says “most of the 186-hectare conservation area burned”.

The RFS says it is “concerned” about the potential for the huge Gospers Mountain fire to reach the Springvale coalmine, and the nearby Mount Piper power station.

It was reported earlier that the fire was 6km from the power station but the RFS is confident the station will be safe.

“That fire is some kilometres away [from the coalmine] but we are concerned about that,” a spokesman said. “Crews on the ground are maintaining obviously close monitoring of that fire because the last thing we need is for that to get into coal areas or worse.

“It is a critical facility and as such fire agencies will do whatever they can to keep fire out of that area.”

The outlook is better for the power station – the RFS says the weather is on its side.

“It’s not directly under threat at the moment. The fire is still a few kilometres away from that area. Luckily it won’t get the worst of the weather because the fire is to the east of that.

“There are a lot of units monitoring that. We are quite confident of protecting that facility.”

Fire authorities and the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, are giving a press conference.

The RFS says roughly a dozen buildings have been destroyed by the Gospers Mountain fire.

“We think there are a dozen homes destroyed in that area but we do have to get crews in there. There are reports of other buildings but we need to get people in to look. Was it sheds? Was it homes? But certainly we’re talking around a dozen homes.”

As the bushfire conditions worsen this week, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is out of the country on a holiday, a move which has angered climate campaigners and opposition MPs.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge tweeted that the prime minister had “an obligation to stick around”, and earlier said he had heard rumours that Morrison was in Hawaii.

Morrison’s office confirmed to the New Daily that he was on holiday but said the Hawaii claim was “wrong”.

One protest, organised by the school strikers for climate, is planned for Thursday, outside Kirribilli House in Sydney.

“Extreme heat is gripping us this week and towns are running out of water, yet our prime minister has fled the country,” organisers said. “Those on the frontlines don’t get this luxury.

“Scott Morrison tells us to be quiet, chill out, enjoy the cricket whilst failing to show the leadership we need when we’re in the midst of a massive climate crisis.”

Morrison is on a family holiday – not in a professional capacity – with his wife and daughters during the school holidays.

Inland NSW will feel the heat today although the heatwave has not yet made it to the coast (for now).

It is forecast to to reach 40C in Bourke and Brewarrina, 41C in Wilcannia, 39C in Broken Hill, 40C in Menindee, 37C in Tamworth and 36C in Albury.

It will be 33C in Canberra.

The forecast for SA later this week is frightening.

Oodnadatta will hit 47C on Wednesday and stay like that until Friday.

Port Augusta will reach 47C on Thursday, and Wudinna 48C. On Friday Port Augusta and Whyalla will rise to 48C .

Meanwhile Adelaide will experience highs of 42C, 41C and 44C on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Now that the dust and mercury have settled, we can confirm that various heat records were smashed on Monday across the country.

Yesterday Perth posted a maximum of 40.9C. This made it three days in a row above 40C for the WA capital, the first time in December since records began.

The average maximum temperature for Perth this month is an astonishing 36C, 7C above average.

And it was also the fourth day over 40C day in December, setting another record. The previous record was two, and there are still 14 days in the month to go.

In Queensland the temperature in Brisbane hit 41.2C by midday. That equalled the previous record for the city’s hottest day, set in 1981.

In Gatton in the Lockyer Valley, a record did fall. The top of 43.2C was the hottest December temperature recorded there, beating the previous record which was set on Saturday. Before that the record had stood since 2002.

In Oakey, Beerburrum and Nambour, temperatures also exceeded the previous December record, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

And the big news from this morning: a coalition of 29 former fire and emergency chiefs say they will go ahead and hold a bushfire crisis summit with or without Scott Morrison.

Last week a former NSW fire chief, Greg Mullins, and a former Queensland fire chief, Lee Johnson, called for the national summit on how Australia should prepare for bushfires in a changed climate.

Earlier this year the fire chiefs had asked to meet the prime minister, but said their advice had been ignored. The group is calling for action on the climate crisis which has made bushfire season longer and more intense.

Here’s the fire map for NSW. A quiet morning, with all fires are at advice. But yesterday the commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, warned that conditions will deteriorate – and fires will flare up – as the heat kicks in.

Good morning and welcome to our continuing coverage of the bushfire crisis.

The heatwave that settled over Australia yesterday bringing above-40C temperatures to Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland is set to continue and slowly move east.

Today Adelaide is forecast to hit 40C and Port Augusta 45C. In WA, Perth will peak at 33C, and the Kimberley and Pilbara will reach 44C. In Queensland, Birdsville will hit 46C, and in NSW, Wilcannia will reach 41C.

Overnight three fires in NSW that had flared to emergency levels (Gospers Mountain, Palmers Oaky and Kerry Ridge) were downgraded to watch and act, and further downgraded to advice, thanks to the work of the RFS.

In WA, the fire north of Yanchep was also downgraded after it had burned at emergency levels all day across 13,000 hectares.