Wildfires in Australia led to the closure of several embassies in the country's capital Canberra, where local authorities announced the threat of smoke in the area on weekends amid hot and windy weather, Financial Times reported.

The head of the Estonian diplomatic mission in Australia, Kersti Eesmaa, confirmed that the Estonian embassy had moved to Sydney.

“The cause for the temporary move is the deterioration of air quality,” said Ms Eesmaa, “and the wish to protect the most vulnerable members of the families of embassy staff.” Such closures had happened previously only in countries experiencing major political crises, she added.

According to the source, the Hungarian Embassy was closed due to “extreme unhealthy air pollution”, as well as Ireland and Italy. Similar plans were voiced by the Israeli diplomatic mission.

As a result of natural fires in Australia, millions of hectares of land have already burned out, over the past months, 17 people have been killed and thousands of houses destroyed. University of Sydney estimates that over 1 billion animals have died. Somewhere the fires are so intense and the smoke is so dense that it has become impossible to extinguish them from the air. Authorities are sending naval ships and aircraft to the affected area. Large-scale evacuation due to fires is underway on the southeast coast of Australia.