Australia's orroral valley fire consumes over 155,000 acres in a week

NASA's Terra satellite saw yet another fire, known as the Orroral Valley Fire, break out in the Canberra region of Australia, specifically in and around the ?Namadgi National Park. In one week, these fires have consumed 62,988 hectares (155,646 acres) according to the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency as of Feb. 04, 2020 (2:30 am local Australian time). The Department of Defence in Australia has reported that a firefighting helicopter's landing lights created the heat needed to spark the new fire. Since the area is tinder-dry, any bit of heat can provide the ignition for a new blaze. Below is a sliding image showing the true- and false-color images of the fire on Feb. 03, 2020 taken by the Terra satellite using the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument. The dark red-brown color represents areas where the fires have burned the land.