An approaching wall of fire and smoke in Canberra. This shot was taken from the city centre over the West Lake. The parliament (to the left on this photo) was already covered in smoke at that time. The sky divided into a surreal spotless blue and a pitch black side, with the black side pushing in.
At this time it became apparent that these fires exceed normal bushfire activity by far and 45 minutes later a state of emergency was declared for the Australian Capital Territory.
Two days later and after the fire activity slowed down, four people had died in the fires and about 400 homes were destroyed.

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Keyword tags: Busfire, Bushfires, Australia, Canberra, 2003, West Lake