A wildfire emergency has been declared in the in the metropolitan region of Australia, the Regional Emergency Management Agency (ESA) reported.

The Australian metropolitan region now faces the threat of a forest fire, which could be the worst since the devastating disaster in 2003, said Andrew Barr, chief minister of the metropolitan area.

According to him, the southern suburbs of Canberra are threatened by a combination of extreme heat and wind, 9News reported.

The fire has already destroyed 18.5 thousand hectares - approximately 8% of the region’s land. Millions of hectares of land have already burned out, 27 people have been killed in recent months, more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed as result of wildfires. University of Sydney estimates that over 1 billion animals have died.