Tourists flee wildfire-hit Australia coast
Massive smoke rises from wildfires burning in East Gippsland, Victoria. Thousands are fleeing Australia’s eastern coast ahead of worsening conditions as the military started to evacuate people trapped on the shore.
PERTH (AP) — Thousands of tourists fled Australia’s wildfire-ravaged eastern coast yesterday ahead of worsening conditions as the military started to evacuate people trapped on the shore further south. Cooler weather since Tuesday has aided firefighting and allowed people to replenish supplies.
Vehicles formed long lines at gas stations and supermarkets, and traffic was gridlocked as highways reopened.
But fire conditions were expected to deteriorate Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return.
“There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw (on Tuesday),” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.
Authorities said 381 homes had been destroyed on the New South Wales southern coast this week and at least eight people have died this week in the state and neighboring Victoria, Australia’s two most-populous states, where more than 200 fires are currently burning.
New South Wales authorities in the morning ordered tourists to leave a 250-kilometer zone along the picturesque south coast. State Transport Minister Andrew Constance said it is the “largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we’ve ever seen.”
In Victoria, where 68 homes have burned this week, the military was helping thousands of people who fled to the shore as a wildfire threatened their homes Tuesday in the coastal town of Mallacoota. Food, water, fuel and medical expertise were being delivered and about 500 people were going to be evacuated from the town by a naval ship.