More than 100 Queensland bushfires rage
BRISBANE: One community was cut off by bushfire and told to seek shelter last night and residents of six other towns were packing up valuables and evacuating their homes as fires continued to rage in eastern Queensland.
Firefighters could not stop a fire advancing towards the seaside hamlet of Tinnanbar, and said the blaze had reached the road.
‘‘Tinnanbar Rd is being impacted by fire and is unsafe. The safest option is to shelter in place,’’ authorities warned.
Six other communities were evacuating — two not far from Baffle Creek, the epicentre of the state’s bushfire crisis.
Residents were also told to leave Winfield and Captain Creek, not far from Baffle Creek where fires have been burning for almost a week, as well as Stanwell and Kabra, near Rockhampton.
A fifth town facing evacuation is The Caves, about 25km north of Rockhampton. Evacuations were also under way for the 22 people at Broken River, east of Rockhampton, who had been ringed by fire for days.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had flown to the fire zone, and had not long left Kabra when an alert was issued for residents to leave. At least one home was destroyed at Kabra on Wednesday.
‘‘We’re not out of this yet,’’ Palaszczuk said yesterday, as more than 100 fires continued to burn across the state.
The premier, police and fire authorities have expressed mounting frustration over some people’s refusal to heed evacuation orders.
Baffle Creek has been threatened by bushfires for almost a week but some people were hiding so they would not be forced to leave, a woman who left said.
Karen Smallmon listened and left days ago, but said others were actively hiding from police despite fires raging nearby.
‘‘They’re all just dodging the police because if the police catch them they’ll escort them out,’’ she said yesterday, adding that she knew of one person who had been escorted out in handcuffs.
‘‘They don’t think they’re in danger. They think they can see it coming.’’—