Australia begins wide-ranging enquiry into deadly bushfires

FILE PHOTO: The remains of cars that were burnt during the bushfire season, are piled up in the community of Wytaliba, New South Wales, Australia January 27, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia on Monday began the first hearings of a powerful inquiry into the causes of catastrophic bushfires that swept across the country, killing 33 people, destroying some 2,500 homes and razing an area the size of South Korea.

Fuelled by three years of drought, which experts have attributed to climate change, hundreds of fires, some massive in size, burned across Australia's east coast for months before finally being extinguished in February.