2023-10-03 12:49:46
Australian firefighters on Tuesday ordered the population of around fifteen localities in the south-east of the country to flee or take shelter, to protect themselves from fires “very difficult” to contain due to the winds. The fires have already ravaged 17,000 hectares.
Some 650 firefighters are mobilized, said the head of the Victorian fire service. Emergency services issued evacuation orders for nine rural communities, warning that the fires were “threatening homes and people.”
Residents who had not yet left seven other localities were urged to seek shelter immediately, saying “it is too late to leave the area safely.”
“We are dealing with fires ahead of the main fire front and firefighters are doing their best to try to contain this fire, but it is very difficult,” the fire chief told Australian public broadcaster ABC. Rain should help dampen the flames by late afternoon, he added.
>> Images of the damage caused by the fires: Fires continue in eastern Australia / News in video / 33 sec. / today at 11:26
Fire ‘out of control’ in Tasmania
Wind gusts of up to 80 km/h were reported around the county of East Gippsland, about 250 kilometers east of Melbourne, he said.
Another fire was “out of control” on Flinders Island in Tasmania (south-east), state emergency services said, although recent rains had slowed its spread.
After several wet years, experts expect this year’s Australian summer to be marked by the most intense seasonal fires since 2019-2020.
Four years ago, fires broke out on the east coast of Australia, destroying entire swaths of forests, killing millions of animals and suffocating towns with smoke.
>> Read also: The number of extreme fires is expected to increase, warns the UN
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