STATE OF EMERGENCY

Premier warns of more to come as entire towns evacuate

AS 138 bushfires blazed across Queensland, properties were destroyed and 8000 people were told to evacuate the central Queensland town of Gracemere.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state was experiencing never- before- seen fire conditions, describing the situation as “catastrophic”, “unprecedented” and “uncharted”.

In Townsville, residents suffering from three days of a record- breaking heatwave were given a short reprieve when a storm cell lashed the city and the temperature dropped 12C in an hour.

However the soaring temperatures should return today and were predicted to continue over the weekend.

A FIRE raged towards the central Queensland town of Gracemere last night as its 8000 residents fled in an unprecedented evacuation, some with just the clothes on their backs.

Several homes in the small town, just 15km outside Rockhampton, were already at serious risk of burning to the ground last night as firefighters frantically worked to battle a blaze sweeping in from the west through Stanwell.

The fire, just one of about 130 still burning across Queensland overnight, took the community and authorities by surprise as all eyes were on blazes north of Bundaberg, where Rules Beach was evacuated earlier in the day.

Late yesterday afternoon, the decision was made to evacuate Gracemere and nearby Ambrose as well, with residents given a window of mere hours to get out as schools and other services also shut their doors. At 7pm last night, about 80 per cent of the Gracemere community had “safely and sensibly” evacuated to the Rockhampton Showgrounds.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the catastrophic bushfire posed a serious risk to homes and structures in the area.

“We’ve had close to 200 fires today,” she said. “The early indications are we are expecting ( buildings to be affec- ted). There are some structures that may be on the outskirts of town already affected.”

She said the fire was believed to have already torn through some structures in nearby Kabra.

“What the difficulty I have is, we can’t make those damage assessments accurately until we get back in and the operations are taking place as we speak,” Ms Carroll said.

The separate fire at Ambrose – a small town between Rockhampton and Gladstone – jumped the Bruce Highway, resulting in the main arterial road being cut off.

Nearby Mount Larcom was also evacuated, with residents urged to shelter in Gladstone.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said hot conditions fuelling the fires were likely to persist through until next week.

“We expect to be in this heatwave until at least next Tuesday,” she said. “It is going to be very serious conditions ... now until then.”

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Dianna Eadie said winds were forecast to ease off last night and there was less of a risk of further thunderstorms.

“We’re also losing potential for high based thunderstorms which could ignite more fires,” she said.

“There are still very high fire dangers across much of the state.”