Bushfires ravaging parched Tasmania
Hobart – Two huge bushfires are threatening more Tasmanian communities after homes and a school were destroyed, while police are investigating a suspected death in the south of the island.
Up to 65 buildings, including houses, a school and an RSL club, have been destroyed in the small community of Dunalley, 55 kilometres southeast of the state capital, Hobart.
Police said about 15 properties at nearby Boomer Bay and more at Connellys Marsh had also been lost, as the impact of catastrophic fire conditions in southern Tasmania begins to emerge.
More communities were affected last night by the Dunalley area fire and another in the Derwent Valley, northwest of Hobart, which was causing concern again after winds changed.
Copping and Boomer Bay residents were being advised to move to Marion Bay, while the communities of Dodges Ferry, Primose Sands, Connellys Marsh and Susans Bay were also being threatened.
Fire crews were monitoring potential spot fires further south at Eaglehawk Neck and banking on a southerly wind change to stop those fires spreading.
The second major fire was affecting Karanja, with Lawrenny and Hamilton expected to be hit this morning.
Tasmanian deputy police commissioner Scott Tilyard said a team was at Dunalley to investigate a fire crew’s concerns that a man may have become trapped and died while trying to defend his house.
‘‘We can’t at this early stage rule out that there has been loss of life.’’
He said about 50 people had sheltered near the Boomer Bay jetty, and another group was safe at the local pub.
Police boats were checking the shoreline for people reported to be sheltering in the water, although none had been located, as well as ferrying supplies to the cut-off Tasman Peninsula. A helicopter was evacuating those needing medical treatment.
Electricity and some phone communications were out on the peninsula, which was cut off with the closure of the major Arthur Highway.
About 600 people were taking refuge at temporary accommodation at Nubeena, and 1500 people were reported to have visited the Port Arthur convict settlement ruins yesterday.
‘‘Those people are being looked after as best we can,’’ Mr Tilyard said. ‘‘The main thing is they are safe.’’
Huge plumes of smoke were visible from Hobart as the city sweltered through its hottest day on record.
The temperature reached 41.8 degrees C at 4.05pm local time, the hottest it has been since records started in 1883.
Tasmania Fire Service Chief Officer Mike Brown said conditions yesterday reached the ‘‘catas trophic’’ level on the rating system that was developed after the Black Saturday fires in Victoria.
Elsewhere, a grass fire at Epping in the north of the island had been contained, and another blaze near Bicheno on the east coast had been downgraded.