Rain in Sydney has brought welcome relief to thousands of firefighters who have battled raging bush fires ringing the city for nearly a week.
Some 4,000 firefighters, many of them volunteers, have been working around the clock to limit the damage since the bush fires broke out on Wednesday.
Fanned by hot, dry winds and extreme heat, walls of flames - some leaping 200 feet in the air - have consumed 50 homes around Sydney.
Two elderly men died in the fires - one had a heart attack as he tried to save a herd of horses and the other died in his trailer home.
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The fires also burned 250,000 acres of land.
AP