HEAVY rains in New South Wales State in southeastern Australia in recent days have led to hopes that all the bushfires in the Australian state could be out by the end of the week.

Since Friday, parts of the fire-ravaged Australian state have experienced their heaviest rainfall in years.

The rain caused widespread flooding. Hundreds of people had to be rescued, including one man stranded in a tree.

The deluge has also extinguished 30 fires, leaving only four “uncontained,” said the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS).

In total, 24 fires remain burning across the state.

“Given the forecast, we should be able to get on top of those relatively quickly and set the fires down,” said RFS spokesman James Morris.

“We are hoping by the end of the week we may be able to have zero uncontained fires across New South Wales,” he said.

(SD-Agencies)