Residents flee blaze in Aussie

Sydney – Fires continued to threaten homes in Australia’s northeast state of Queensland yesterday, with thousands more residents told to evacuate.

Extremely hot, dry and windy conditions were fanning flames and making blazes unpredictable and difficult for fire crews to bring under control.

Fires have scorched more than 22 000 hectares since Saturday and are continuing to spread with authorities issuing “leave now” directives to more than 10 communities, and many more on “watch and act” alert.

State premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was on the ground during the day to observe operations.

There was good news for residents who were evacuated and were later able to return to their homes, with all properties so far miraculously spared, despite some coming just metres from the fire front.

Resident Grace Cairns told the national broadcaster: “We took off because we were trying to get the horses out and you could see the flames coming down the hill and I thought it was gone.” –