Following Record Temperatures, Biggest Bushfire of the Summer Rages in Southern Australia

Plumes of smoke stream from a bushfire raging near Adelaide in South Australia, as seen by NASA’s Terra satellite on Saturday (1/3/15). The red dots indicate areas where the satellite sensor detected fire. The city of Adelaide is circled. (Source: NASA) A bushfire visible from space is raging just outside the city of Adelaide in South Australia. The blaze has burned 42 square miles so far, an area about twice the size of Manhattan. Five homes are confirmed destroyed, and dozens more have likely been lost. This is said to be the worst bushfire in the area since the Ash Wednesday inferno in 1983. More than 70 lives were lost in that catastrophe.