If you ever thought wildfires and yachting were unrelated, it's time to change your mind. On 10 December in Australia, smoke from wildfires engulfed Sydney. «» The organisers of the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge, a preparatory race in Sydney Bay before the famous RolexSydney Hobart later in the month, had no choice but to cancel the race.
«It was a crazy day. I hope it doesn't happen again soon»," commented photographer Andrea Francolini on his images.
The cause of the concentration of smoke in the city was a combination of high temperature and low pressure.
The first fires appeared in the northeast of the country in mid-October. Since then, the fire has covered 2.7 million hectares, including national parks. In the state of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney, more than two million hectares have so far been engulfed by fire. Almost half of the 80 fires are not contained.
To cope with fire the Australian firefighters are helped by colleagues from the USA and Canada. At the same time, the headquarters of the firefighters themselves had to be evacuated because of the smog in Sydney.
