Fires spark state of emergency
AUSTRALIA’S Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared a week-long state of emergency in response to the escalating threat from bushfires.
He had to cut short a visit to a town ravaged by fire after angry locals heckled him over the government’s response. They said he had done very little to help Cobargo in New South Wales (NSW), where two people died earlier this week and many lost their homes. The PM said he was “not surprised people are feeling very raw”.
Since September, bushfires have killed 18 people and destroyed more than 1,300 homes across NSW and neighbouring Victoria. At least 17 people are still missing.
Thousands are already fleeing a vast “tourist leave zone” in NSW, with supplies running low in some cut-off towns.
Troops are also preparing to evacuate some of the 4,000 people trapped by fires in Victoria.
THOUSANDS of tourists have fled Australia’s wildfire-ravaged eastern coast 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 petrol stations and supermarkets, with traffic gridlocked as roads reopened.
But fire conditions are expected to deteriorate at the weekend as high temperatures and strong winds return.
“There is every potential the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw (on Tuesday),” said New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers.
Authorities said 381 homes had been destroyed on the New South Wales (NSW) southern coast this week, while 18 people have died since the fires began burning.
At least eight people have died this week in NSW and neighbouring Victoria, Australia’s two mostpopulous states, where more than 200 fires are burning.
NSW authorities have ordered tourists to leave a 155-mile zone along the picturesque south coast, which state transport minister Andrew Constance described as 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 on 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.
“We think around 3,000 tourists and 1,000 locals are there. Not all of those will want to leave, not all can get on the vessel at one time,” said Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.
Some 12.35 million acres of land – an area almost the size of Croatia – have burned nationwide over the past few months, with more than 1,300 homes destroyed.
Prime Minster Scott Morrison said the crisis was likely to last for months.
“It (fires) will continue to go on until we can get some decent rain that can deal with some of the fires that have been burning for many, many months,” said Mr Morrison.
Smoke from the wildfires caused the air quality in the national capital, Canberra, to be the world’s worst.
New South Wales authorities ordered tourists to leave a 155-mile zone along the picturesque south coast.
New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency starting today, which grants the New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner more control and power.
It is the third state of emergency for New South Wales in the past two months, after previously not being implemented since 2013.