Australian cities evacuated on Christmas due to raging fires
Residents of an Australian region beset by bushfires were given two hours on Tuesday to return home to collect their belongings before Christmas, as emergency crews tried to bring the blazes under control.
Communities around the Grampians in Victoria have been evacuated amid warnings from authorities that conditions there could worsen in coming days to Australia’s worst fire season on record, the so-called “Black Summer” of 2019-20. Might be possible.
More than 41,000 hectares (101,000 acres) of land have been burned by bushfires last week, although there have been no deaths or property damage.
The scorching heat forecast for Boxing Day has also led to fire warnings being issued across the country.
Across Victoria, temperatures are expected to reach 40C (104F) and be accompanied by strong dry winds, while parts of South Australia and New South Wales could also face bushfire conditions from Thursday to Friday .
“We are expecting to see extreme fire danger across almost the entire state,” said Luke Hegarty, spokesman for Victoria’s state control centre.
He said: “This is the biggest fire threat the state has seen since the Black Summer – which we’ve been talking about. It’s important that people understand that Thursday is a day with serious potential ”
Four interstate fire brigades and two incident management teams – made up of more than 100 personnel – will descend on Victoria in the coming days to provide relief to emergency workers who are working around the clock to fight the current fires.
The decision to give families around the Grampians temporary access to their homes “to receive Christmas items… gifts and the like” was made by Jason Heffernan, chief officer of the state’s Country Fire Authority (CFA), on Tuesday morning. Was done.
“(This) is to ensure that if Halls Gap residents will be relocated for Christmas, at least they will have what they need,” he told the Sevens Sunrise programme.
Mary Ann Brown, who lives on the southern edge of the Grampians National Park, told the ABC her community was gearing up for the holidays.
“We don’t go out of the forest until we get a good drop of rain and that may not come until March or April, so the heat is going to be long.”
After several quiet seasons compared to the 2019-20 fire season, parts of Australia are on high alert for bushfire danger this summer. linked to hundreds of deaths And destroyed 24 million hectares of land.
The country has grappled with disaster after disaster in recent years, facing both record-breaking floods and extreme heat, as it feels the effects of climate change.
