Nowhere to go as bushfires rage in east Australia

Thousands told to take shelter as flames reach Sydney suburb

SYDNEY—TENS of thousands of Australians took shelter on Tuesday after authorities warned it was too late for them to leave their homes as bushfires raged across a vast area of the country’s east coast.

Officials issued 14 emergency warnings in New South Wales (NSW), each covering several communities, by late afternoon as more than half the 78 fires across the state burned uncontrolled amid “catastrophic” conditions.

A fire that erupted in Sydney’s northern suburbs in the late afternoon immediately cut off exit routes for some residents, a sign of the intensity of blazes erupting in tinder dry bush.

“Complacency kills—we cannot afford for people to be complacent,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in Sydney.

“This will only worsen throughout the afternoon as the weather conditions continue to deteriorate and particularly those strong winds strengthen,” he said.

Residents, including those in the Sydney suburb of Turramurra already reached by the blaze, were told to seek cover and that it was too late to flee their homes.

In the town of Wauchope, 400 kilometers north of Sydney, residents moved hundreds of livestock to the central showground as fires approached.

Neil Coombes of Wauchope said he would likely lose his home because it was in the anticipated path of the fire.

“My wife went home earlier and said, ‘Is there anything you want me to get?’” Coombes said.

“I said, ‘Yes, I want you back here with me. If the house burns, it burns but I can’t replace her,’” he said.

—AFP HOT ITEM A bushfire burns outside a property near Taree, 350 kilometers north of Sydney, on Tuesday. Residents in the Sydney area were warned of “catastrophic” fire danger as a fresh wave of deadly bushfires ravaged the drought-stricken eastern part of Australia.