Australia: 31 dead in heatwave

AT least 31 people have perished in South Australia’s 40 degree-plus heatwave, while firefighters are battling huge blazes threatening homes, power installations and a coalmine in Victoria.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann says there will be an inquiry into how the national power regulator has handled the state’s heatwave, the political heat turned up as police announced that thirty-one people have died suddenly over the past two days, many of them elderly, as the heatwave continues to take its toll.


Meanwhile Victorians have only narrowly escaped being placed on severe power restrictions after the government considered enacting emergency powers to respond to the explosion of a major electrical substation on Friday night.

Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor compared the unprecedented heatwave that has hit the state to a natural disaster and said there was nothing the government could have done to prevent Friday’s massive power blackout.

Daily Telegraph