Residents curse, insult Australian PM on his visit to wildfire-hit area
More than 200 fires are burning in Australia's two most-populous states
AP | PTI | Perth Last Updated at January 3, 2020 08:29 IST
The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019, in this photo obtained from social media | Photo: Reuters
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was confronted by angry residents who cursed and insulted him Thursday as he visited a wildfire-ravaged corner of the country.
Locals in Cobargo, in New South Wales, yelled at him, made obscene gestures and called him an "idiot" and worse, criticizing him for the lack of equipment to deal with the fires in town. They jeered as his motorcade drove off. In the New South Wales town of Quaama, a firefighter refused to shake hands with him.
"Every single time this area has a flood or a fire, we get nothing. If we were Sydney, if we were north coast, we would be flooded with donations with urgent emergency relief," a resident said in Cobargo.
The outpouring of anger came as authorities said 381 homes had been destroyed on the New South Wales southern coast this week. At least eight people have died this week in New South Wales and the neighbouring state of Victoria.
More than 200 fires are burning in Australia's two most-populous states. Blazes have also been burning in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.
"I'm not surprised people are feeling very raw at the moment. And that's why I came today, to be here, to see it for myself, to offer what comfort I could," Morrison said, adding, "There is still, you know, some very dangerous days ahead. And we understand that, and that's why we're going to do everything we can to ensure they have every support they will need."
Morrison, who has also been criticised over his climate change policies and accused of putting the economy ahead of the environment, insisted that
Australia is "meeting the challenge better than most countries" and "exceeding the targets we set out."
Cooler weather since Tuesday has aided firefighting and allowed people to replenish supplies, with long lines of cars forming at gas stations and supermarkets. But high temperatures and strong winds are forecast to return on Saturday, and thousands of tourists fled the country's eastern coast Thursday ahead of worsening conditions.
New South Wales authorities ordered tourists to leave a 250-kilometre (155-mile) zone. State Transport Minister Andrew Constance called it the "largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we've ever seen".
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency starting Friday, which grants fire officials more authority. It's the third state of emergency for New South Wales in the past two months.
"We don't take these decisions lightly, but we also want to make sure we're taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday," Berejiklian said.
The early and devastating start to Australia's summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record. About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned, at least 17 people have been killed, and more than 1,400 homes have been destroyed.
The crisis "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," the prime minister said.
In Victoria, where 83 homes have burned this week, the military helped thousands of people who fled to the shoreline as a wildfire threatened their homes 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," Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Smoke from the wildfires made the air quality in the capital, Canberra, the worst in the world, according to a ranking Thursday.
Bushfires burn dangerously out of control across southeast Australia
By late evening, Victoria had 14 fires rated at emergency or evacuate warning levels, and New South Wales had 11 rated emergency, with more than 150 others burning across the states
Source: Twitter
Bushfires burned dangerously out of control on Australia’s east coast on Saturday, fanned by high temperatures and strong winds that had firefighters battling to save lives and property, as a change in wind conditions merged several large fire fronts.
By late evening, Victoria had 14 fires rated at emergency or evacuate warning levels, and New South Wales had 11 rated emergency, with more than 150 others burning across the states. New fires had started, and others had broken containment lines.
“There are a number of fires that are coming together - very strong, very large, intense fires that are creating some of these fire-generated thunderstorms,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at an evening briefing.
“And unfortunately we’ve still got many hours to go of these elevated and dangerous conditions.”
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said conditions were deteriorating rapidly as a gusty southerly wind change pushed up the coast and smoke plumes from the fires triggered storms.
Authorities are worried the fires could turn out to be worse than New Year’s Eve, when they burnt massive tracts of bushland and forced thousands of residents and summer holidaymakers to seek refuge on beaches.
In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said while conditions were difficult, the job of firefighters had been made easier by tens of thousands of people following advice to evacuate.
It may be Sunday or later before damage assessments can be made. Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the national death toll from the current fire season, which began in September, at 23. Twelve of those are from this week’s fires alone.
In updates, the NSW RFS repeatedly delivered the same blunt advice to those who had not evacuated at-risk areas: “It is too late to leave. Seek shelter as the fire approaches.”
Residents used social media to post photos of the sky turning black and red from the smoke and glare of the fires, including in the Victorian town of Mallacoota, where around 1,000 people were evacuated by sea on Friday.
The first of those evacuees arrived near Melbourne on Saturday morning after a 20-hour journey by boat and a second ship with about 1,000 people landed in the afternoon.
The federal government announced an unprecedented call up of army reservists to support firefighters as well other resources including a third navy ship equipped for disaster and humanitarian relief.
Andy Gillham, the incident controller in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale, said the area had avoided the worst of the fires on Saturday but stressed this was an exceptional fire season.
“In a normal year, we would start to see the fire season kick off in a big way around early January and we’re already up towards a million hectares of burnt country. This is a marathon event and we expect to be busy managing these fires for at least the next eight weeks,” he said.
Following are highlights of what is happening across Australia:
* Temperatures topped 113 degrees in much of the Sydney metropolitan area, with Penrith recording a high of 120 according to the BOM. Canberra, the national capital, recorded a temperature of 111.2 just after 4 p.m., which the chief minister said was a record for the territory.
*As the fires have flared, many towns have been isolated as major and minor roads are closed. Some fires are generating their own storm systems, which create the risk of lightning strikes generating new fires.
* A late southerly wind change on Saturday dramatically lowered temperatures, but also brought wind gusts of 43-50 miles per hour that caused some major fires near the border of Victoria and New South Wales states to merge and strengthen.
* In South Australia, two people died on Kangaroo Island, a popular holiday spot not far off the coast. South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said more than 247,000 acres have burned there, about one-quarter of the total area.
* Six people remain unaccounted for in Victoria, Premier Andrews said on Saturday, down from 28 reported on Friday.
* The focus on Saturday is preventing more loss of life, authorities said. National parks have been closed and people urged earlier this week to evacuate large parts of NSW’s south coast and Victoria’s north eastern regions, magnets for holidaymakers at the peak of Australia’s summer school holidays.
* Morrison confirmed that his visit to India and Japan scheduled for mid-January had been postponed due to the fires.
* More than 13 million acres of land has been burnt this fire season.
