Australia will take 100 YEARS to recover from bush fires as experts say smoke from blaze to be seen all over the world
AUSTRALIA will take a century to recover from the devastating bush fires - and smoke from the massive infernos will be seen all over the world, experts say.
Hundreds of fires have raged across the country, leaving at least 28 people dead, destroying more than 2,000 homes and killing scores of animals.
Nasa said plumes from the blazes are expected "to make at least one full circuit around the globe".
The space agency said smoke from fires around New Year's Day has already been seen in South America, turning skies "hazy".
It added that skies in New Zealand had "dramatically changed colour", causing "severe air quality issues".
By January 8, the smoke had moved "halfway around the world", according to the
But it will take 100 years for Australia to "get back to where we were before the fires", fire chief Mick Clarke told the Mirror.
The devastation caused by the bushfires is evident in these shocking before and after photographs.
A Nasa spokesman told the BBC that the fires were so big they'd sparked an "unusually large" number of pyrocumulonimbus events - or fire-generated thunderstorms, sending smoke soaring as high as 11 miles into the stratosphere.
Nasa said: "Once in the stratosphere, the smoke can travel thousands of miles from its source, affecting atmospheric conditions globally."
On Tuesday, people in Melbourne endured a second consecutive day of "hazardous" air quality.
More than 100 fires continue to burn in the east, but cooler conditions in recent days and forecast rain have aided firefighting efforts.
The wildfires are thought to have killed off a third of Australia's Koala population - whose numbers were already dangerously low before the flames.
At least 25,000 are now feared to have died after more than 20 million acres of land were turned into scorched earth by the blazes.
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WWF Australia has advised the government of 13 animals whose habitats have been either destroyed or severely damaged.
They include three critically endangered species: the southern corroboree frog, the regent honeyeater bird and the western ground parrot.
Other animals at risk include koala populations across the southeast, the Kangaroo Island dunnart, glossy black cockatoo, long-footed potoroo, western ground parrot, Blue Mountains water skink, eastern bristlebird and the brush-tailed rock wallaby.