Australians leave homes as heat, strong winds escalate bushfire threat
EDEN, Australia (AP/AFP) – Communities across Australia’s fire-ravaged southeast were bracing for a long day of mounting danger on Friday as thousands abandoned their homes for evacuation centers and military helicopters dropped emergency supplies to towns at risk of being isolated by blazes fanned by high temperatures and strong winds.
The danger is centered on New South
Wales and Victoria, Australia’s most populous states, where temperatures and wind speeds are escalating after a few days of relatively benign conditions.
Thousands of firefighters were preparing for the worst with temperatures expected to soar above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of New South Wales and Victoria states and with a late southerly change forecast to bring damaging winds.
“The conditions are difficult today. It’s the hot, dry winds that will prove once again to be the real challenge,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters.
“We are going to see winds coming through around about 35-50 kilometers per hour (around 20-30 miles per hour), gusting up to 70-90 (kilometers) an hour, in some areas... and we are going to see that through most of the day.”
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has warned that coastal towns south of Sydney including Eden, Batemans Bay and Nowra could again be under threat weeks after losing homes to the fires.
“We want people out (and) into safer places,” Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there were more than 130 fires burning in the state, with just over 50 not yet under control.
In neighboring Victoria state, evacuation orders were issued for some areas near the New South Wales border over an uncontained blaze.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews pleaded with residents to evacuate fire-danger areas when alerts were issued.
“If it is safe to get out, then you must get out. That is the only way to guarantee your safety,” Andrews said on Thursday.
Officials in Victoria on Thursday had extended a “state of disaster” declaration for a further 48 hours ahead of Friday’s forecast of scorching temperatures.
On Kangaroo Island off South Australia state, the largest town was cut off as firefighters battled out-ofcontrol infernos, forcing some residents to flee to the local jetty.
The unprecedented fire crisis in southeast Australia has claimed at least 26 lives, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area twice the size of the US state of Maryland since September.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian military was on standby to help firefighters and emergency agencies.
“I’ve given them very clear instructions that they are to stand ready to move and support immediately,” Morrison said on Friday. “In the event that they are needed in the wake of what we hope we will not see today, but we must prepare for today.”