Bushfire ash turns Sydney beach sand black
HENRY- use edit 1253 and credit 'IMOGEN BRENNAN'
A video shot on Saturday (December 7) in the northern Sydney beach of Balmoral shows lapping waves stained black with ash from the bushfires that blazed over the weekend.
"I've never seen anything like it. The ash was so thick in many parts of the water, that I couldn't see my hands in front of my face while swimming," Imogen Brennan told Reuters.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told Australia's ABC television on Sunday (December 8) that a heatwave in the coming days could reach 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), threatening the spread of the fires and new blazes.
There were 96 fires burning in New South Wales, home to Australia's largest city of Sydney, with only about a half contained and more than 1,600 firefighters deployed to do back burning and create containment lines.
