Australian chef in Sudbury raising money to battle wildfires

An Australian chef working in Sudbury is raising money to help fight the wildfires ravaging his country.

Daniel Townsend, the head chef at Di Gusto, said the money raised from this week's charity bread basketa monthly event where customers pay $2.00 for a basket of breadwill go toward the firefighting efforts.

The wildfires have so far scorched 60,000 square kilometres across Australia's southeast. The fires have killed at least 24 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes.

Townsendsaid his family is closer to Sydney, and he keeps in contact with them daily through Facetime, but the heavy smell of smoke keeps most people inside.

"A few people I actually know have lost houses, which is scary," Townsend said. "I would never have thought that...people that I used to work with or friends of friends...their houses had burned down and they just could never ever imagine that happening."

"And some of them don't even have house insurance or something because they just would never expect it. So they're relying on donations and like whatever they can get, support wise."

Townsend said he pitched the idea of having January's charity baskets dedicated to the wildfires, which was a first for the restaurant.

It also helps ease some of the concern he has for friends and family back home.

"It's sad, it's hard to deal with, but I mean there's not really much I can do," he said. "Just donating and helping out as much as I can. You know, I feel bad sometimes knowing that I'm not there to try and help out more but also sometimes it's nice to see that I'm far away from it."