Australians Evacuated As Fires Rage

SYDNEY : Australian holidaymakers were evacuated on Thursday from a campsite in the path of raging wildfires, a day after an inferno destroyed 13 homes in the country’s southeast, officials said.

Fire crews in Victoria state were on high alert as strong winds and searing temperatures prompted extreme fire warnings, with four blazes burning out of control in the Gippsland region north of Melbourne.

“It’s going to be extremely hot, we’re looking at the spot forecast of temperatures of up to 40 degrees (Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit),” a spokesman for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) told state radio.

“Humidities will be low, and the wind will be out of the north gusting up to 55 or 60 kilometres (34 or 37 miles) an hour, which is a bad fire day.”

Camping areas in East Gippsland were evacuated and the CFA warned the main highway between Sydney and Melbourne could be closed as conditions worsened. Officials did not say how many campers had to flee.

The blazes come after February’s “Black Saturday” inferno killed 173 people and flattened more than 2,000 homes in the state, in Australia’s worst natural disaster of modern times.

Savage fires razed 13 homes and an emergency services building at Port Lincoln in the neighbouring state of South Australia Wednesday. Authorities said cooler temperatures and rain overnight had helped emergency crews bring some fires under control. Five firefighters were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation but no one was seriously injured.

Much of Victoria has been declared a catastrophic fire risk, when conditions are considered on a par with the Black Saturday firestorm and residents are urged to evacuate. Meanwhile farmers in central New South Wales were being advised to stock up on food and medical supplies ahead of a major Christmas Day deluge, with the weather bureau forecasting the worst floods in a decade.

“We’d hope most people would be prepared to be (trapped) out there for five days, because that’s how long it takes for floodwaters to subside,” a spokesman for the NSW state emergency service said.

The heavy rains are expected as cyclone Laurence moves inland after hammering the country’s west coast earlier this week.

---

Australians Evacuated As Fires Rage was first posted on December 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm.

People ‘Fleeing For Lives’ in Australian Fires

SYDNEY : People ‘Fleeing For Lives’ in Australian Fires, Residents were ‘fleeing for their lives’ on Wednesday as wildfires burned out of control in South Australia, a witness said, as the state endured catastrophic fire conditions.

Less than a year after 173 people lost their lives in the Black Saturday fires in neighbouring Victoria state, a large fire burning outside Port Lincoln had already destroyed two buildings, officials said.

One resident, named Ray, told ABC radio he expected his house to be gone as when he was fleeing his house there were “flames above the roof.”

He added: “I’d just like to say to people who are out there on the roads and blocking the roads, people like me are fleeing for our lives.”

The Country Fire Service said the fire was about two kilometres (1.24 miles) outside of Port Lincoln and extremely dangerous.

It warned people in the area to take shelter in a solid structure immediately and to stay off the roads.

“You should not attempt to leave or enter this area as the roads will not be safe,” it said in a warning.

Another Port Lincoln resident, identified only as Jeff, told the ABC he could see “exploding big flames” streaming from the fire, adding that “some of them look to be at least 100-foot high.”

Firefighters are also battling another dangerous fire near the South Australian town of Kingston in the state’s southeast, as temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in the largely desert state.

Meanwhile residents began cleaning up the small communities in Western Australia’s Pilbara region on Wednesday after tropical Cyclone Laurence swept through, flattening buildings and uprooting trees.

The cyclone was sweeping eastward across the state but had been downgraded to a Category 1 storm — the lowest rating — and was expected to weaken further as it heads inland, officials said.

---

People ‘Fleeing For Lives’ in Australian Fires was first posted on December 23, 2009 at 4:52 pm.