SYDNEY, Australia - Wildfires razed one home and threatened dozens more in Australia Sunday as the firestorms that claimed 173 lives earlier this year returned to drought-parched terrain, emergency services said.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) reported two major fires, the largest at Dolphin Point, about 230 kilometres (143 miles) south of Sydney, forcing residents and 150 scouts to evacuate a caravan park on Saturday night RFS Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers said the fire had scorched 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) and was expected to burn for days.

"We're protecting properties but the fire is definitely not contained or controlled yet," he told AFP.

"It's going to be going for the next few days, if not longer." Media reports said people had also left their homes at Fingal Bay, about 215 kilometres north of Sydney, after high winds fanned another blaze, although Rogers said no homes were under immediate threat.

He said waterbombing helicopters and about 90 firefighters were working to control the southern blaze, which had destroyed an unoccupied holiday home and was still regarded as a potential danger to dozens more properties.

Rogers said the fire's appearance, almost five weeks before the official bushfire danger period begins on October 1, was an ominous sign for the upcoming summer in the southern hemisphere.

Drought-hit Australia has just endured one of the hottest winters on record and Rogers said meteorologists were predicting weather patterns that would send hot, dry winds across the already-parched landscape.

"Given that 65 percent of the state is in drought and there's a prediction of an El Nino event, it's quite concerning for the fire season ahead," he said.

NSW Emergency Services Minister Steve Whan said the severity of the fires was unprecedented so early in the year.

"People here in the fire control are telling me that they haven't seen fire behaviour like this at this time of year before," he told ABC Radio.

Entire towns and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed in a firestorm in Victoria state last February, killing 173 people in Australia's worst natural disaster of modern times. -AFP