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.