Over 30,000 Forced to Flee Australia’s Gippsland Valley as Bushfires Rage
Melbourne: Over 30,000 people were told to evacuate Australia’s East Gippsland region before 9am yesterday, as soaring temperatures and high winds were expected to fan the flames of three enormous wildfires which had already burnt through 130,000 hectares of forest.
“Everyone in East Gippsland must leave the area today due to the fire danger,” Victoria State’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) posted to social media.
“Do not travel to this area. It is not possible to provide support and aid to all the visitors currently in the East Gippsland region.” A popular destination during the Christmas period for hikers, campers and families on holiday, the area in the Gippsland Valley affected by bushfires is over 15,000 square kilometres.
“It’s always a tough decision when you’re asking a lot of people to leave an area,” Andrew Crisp, the Commander of Emergency Management Victoria told the Seven Network.
“However it’s based on the evidence. We have a forecast today that it is going to be hot, it’s very, very dry and it’s going to be very windy, so we have dangerous conditions and we don’t want people to be in East Gippsland.”
Expecting temperatures around 43°C and wind gusts of 35 kilometres per hour, Mr Crisp said because conditions were going to radically deteriorate as the day goes on, it would be too late to leave.
“If you are not out by 9 o’clock, then you have to stay where you are because there is every chance the highways could be cut off.” Known as a pyrocumulus cloud, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology explained the phenomenon of “fire clouds” could cause dry lightning which authorities fear may the spread the blaze even further by igniting more bushland.
Over 550 forest firefighters have been dispatched in response to the emergency, along with 300 CFA volunteer firefighters.
There were also 70 planes and helicopters with water-bombing capabilities on standby for the emergency response efforts.