Navy rescue 1,000 from bushfires
THE Australian navy was yesterday drafted in to evacuate about 1,000 tourists, residents and their pets trapped in the fire-ravaged town of Mallacoota.
An evacuation along the Victoria coast saw landing craft ferry stricken people to the sanctuary of warships MV Sycamore and HMAS Choules.
The operation was described as an “unprecedented mass relocation of civilians”.
A worsening crisis left hundreds stranded as a searing weather front whipped up more blazes across Victoria and New SouthWales.
At the peak of the summer holiday season tens of thousands of holidaymakers have been urged to leave national parks and tourist areas on the NSW south coast and eastern areas of Victoria as temperatures are set to top 104F (40C) today. Victoria declared a state of disaster for the first time, giving authorities powers to take control of services and compel people to leave their properties. NSW declared a similar state of emergency.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had called for calm before he was heckled during a visit to fire-devastated town of Cobargo where locals branded him an “idiot” for his response to the emergency.
Video showed him confronted by an angry group, with one saying he should be “ashamed of himself” adding he had “left the country to burn”.
He later said he understood people’s anger
Landing craft helped ferry people trapped in Mallacoota yesterday to take them to the navy ship HMAS Choules, right, shrouded in smoke from the fires and that they had “suffered a great lot” and were “feeling very raw”.
But NSW MP Andrew Constance said: “To be honest the locals probably gave him the welcome he probably deserved. People have suffered great loss. People are hurting. People are raw. That’s what happens in natural disasters.”
So far this year bushfires have scorched more than 10 million acres of land and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, including 449 on the south coast this week alone.
Meanwhile, a Labour peer has said Britain should send firefighters and troops to aid Australia.
In an email to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock said: “Their government is struggling to cope.
“Can I suggest we might urgently consider whether we can fly out firefighters and equipment as well as deploying military and naval capability to help before it gets totally out of control?”