Police block the Old Hume Highway as a blaze jumps the road near the town of Tahmoor as the Green Wattle Creek Fire threatens a number of communities in the south west of Sydney, Australia, December 19, 2019. AAP Image/Dean Lewins/via REUTERS
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a rare public apology on Friday and cut short a Hawaiian vacation in response to mounting public anger after two volunteer firefighters were killed battling bushfires sweeping the country's east coast.
Some areas of Sydney are set for "catastrophic" conditions on Saturday, and the deadly fires are now engulfing other parts of the country. One person was killed in a car crash on Friday near South Australia's capital city of Adelaide where an emergency warning is in place, though the precise circumstances surrounding the death is not yet clear.
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