Vast swaths of southeastern Australia are sweltering in a heat wave that’s pushed temperatures to close to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and forced some residents to protect their properties as wildfires race through parts of rural Victoria.
Karlee Smith jumped on a quad bike to help herd sheep away from the fast-moving flames on a farm in the town of Gellibrand, a small rural town, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Melbourne.
“We actually had to ride through where the fire was burning,” Smith said. “Grass fire, it’s patchy, it’s hot and it’s on fire.”
As her dad and brother battled the flames with a water tanker hitched onto the back of a…