Australia | Wildfire kills at least 2 and injures 13 others

Firefighters contained a large wildfire yesterday that had caused at least two deaths, 13 injuries and destroyed at least 16 homes near the southern Australian city of Adelaide, officials said.
Two bodies of a 56-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man were recovered on Wednesday, South Australia state Premier Jay Weatherill said. Their names were not released.
At least two firefighters were among the 13 people hospitalized on Wednesday by the fast-moving blaze that had scorched 85,000 hectares of farm and woodland and threatened several towns near Adelaide, the state’s capital and largest city, Weatherill said.
Five of the injured were in critical or serious conditions with burns.
“Their condition is being closely monitored, but we do hold grave concerns,” Weatherill told reporters.
Country Fire Service director Brenton Eden said the fire was no longer out of control and had been contained within a 210-kilometer perimeter since Wednesday night.
Eden said the fire on Wednesday had been the fastest moving he had seen in more than a decade, fanned by wind gusts of up to 90 kph.
“Everyone in South Australia yesterday who was either trying to combat that fire or who lived in that area was totally stunned by the speed of that fire,” Eden told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.
But winds and temperatures were milder yesterday. Officials expect up to 400 firefighters would continue to extinguish the fire for two or three days. AP