Australian bushfires force evacuations as country swelters

SYDNEY – Out-of-control bushfires forced hundreds of residents and tourists to flee several towns in rural south-east Australia on Sunday, as the country

sweltered in a heatwave.

People in four towns in Gippsland, a Victorian region of national parks and wineries popular with tourists about 320km east of the state capital Melbourne, were told to evacuate immediately.

Residents of three other towns and surrounding areas were warned to prepare to leave.

Among those who escaped was Briagolong resident Rob Saunders, who saw the flames reach his house.

“I watched the main water tank, the plastic tanks melt away,” he told public broadcaster ABC. “The car port is gone, the camper trailer and bits and pieces all went up (in flames).

“I looked to the side of my house, it’s a mud brick, raw timber house, one of my verandah posts was on fire... it was time for me to go.”

The authorities have also issued fire bans for large swathes of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.

The nation’s weather forecaster said temperatures would be up to 12 deg C above average in some areas, with Sydney, the state capital, set to hit 36 deg C – making it the warmest October day since 2019.

The hottest October day on record was 38.2 deg C in 2004.

At Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport, the temperature was 34.6 deg C at 2pm, more than 11 deg C above the October mean maximum temperature, according to forecaster data.

State Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib announced the start of an official bushfire danger period, when the “scorching” heat lifted the risk for the week ahead.

“Not only is it hot, it’s dry and it’s windy, and those conditions combined are the perfect storm,” said Mr Dib.

The fire authorities on Sunday issued nine total fire bans for parts of the state in a bid to reduce the chance of bushfires.

Australia faces a high-risk bushfire season following the onset of an El Nino weather event that was recently announced. El Nino is typically associated with extreme events like wildfires, cyclones and droughts.

October temperature records are usually set towards the end of the month, as the days get longer and Australia gets closer to summer.

But senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology told AFP news agency: “To even be within cooee (near to records) on the first day of the month is unusual, for sure.”

In Sydney, local resident Sandy Chapman said she was worried about the mix of extreme heat and wind. “It doesn’t take long to start a fire and have it burning, and it’s very scary,” she said.

Sydneysider Katie Kell hoped there would be no repeat of bushfires on the same scale as those in 2019-20.

“I don’t know, with how hot it’s been since the start of spring, I’m not too confident,” she said.

As global temperatures rise due to climate change, scientists have warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather events will become more frequent and intense.

Australia’s last two fire seasons have been quiet compared with the catastrophic 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of bushfires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people. REUTERS, AFP