Australian state urges 30,000 people to evacuate due to a ‘catastrophic’ wildfire.
Australian state urges 30,000 people to evacuate due to a ‘catastrophic’ wildfire.
Firefighters in Australia are battling a massive fire that has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in some of the country’s worst fire conditions in recent years.
Hot, dry, and windy conditions have generated “extreme to catastrophic fire dangers” in regions of Victoria and South Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
Severe thunderstorms are also expected in the region, posing the risk of dry lightning strikes, which occur during a storm when the rain evaporates before hitting the ground.
Around 30,000 people were advised to evacuate portions of Victoria by midday Wednesday, when authorities said it would be too late to depart.
High temperatures in the mid-40 degrees Celsius range (104 Fahrenheit) and wind gusts of up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph) may cause any flames to spread quickly, according to Jason Heffernan, chief officer at Victoria Fire Department, who spoke to state broadcaster ABC on Wednesday.
AUSTRALIA
— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) February 22, 2024
Residents were forced to leave their homes in western Victoria on Thursday as a wildfire blazed out-of-control. pic.twitter.com/yinJkD4IvL
Severe thunderstorms are also expected in the region, posing the risk of dry lightning strikes, which occur during a storm when the rain evaporates before hitting the ground.
Around 30,000 people were advised to evacuate portions of Victoria by midday Wednesday, when authorities said it would be too late to depart.
High temperatures in the mid-40 degrees Celsius range (104 Fahrenheit) and wind gusts of up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph) may cause any flames to spread quickly, according to Jason Heffernan, chief officer at Victoria Fire Department, who spoke to state broadcaster ABC on Wednesday.
“Unless your property is immaculately prepared and you have firefighting resources available and you are fit and you are mentally capable of sustaining a long duration firefight … my strong advice to the community is to leave early,” Heffernan said.
According to the state’s emergency department, firefighters are still battling a blaze that began last Thursday in the rural town of Bayindeen, about 190 kilometers (118 miles) west of Melbourne.
Six homes have already been burned, and authorities fear that windy and dry conditions could fan the flames near high-density residential neighborhoods.
Large portions of Victoria have received a “extreme” fire rating, while the state’s western Wimmera region has been assigned a “catastrophic” risk, which means that if flames start, they will be “uncontrollable and uncontainable,” according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The Forest Fire Management of Victoria announced the closure of more than 100 state woods on social media site X. Dozens of schools and daycare institutions have also been closed.
The fires occur more than four years after bushfires destroyed large parts of southeastern Australia, killing 33 people nationwide, in what has been dubbed the Black Summer wildfires of 2019–2020.
The state of Victoria was devastated by the fires, which raged for more than 90 days and burned almost 1.5 million hectares of land, the bulk of which were forests, parks, and plantations that protected key wildlife habitats, according to Victoria’s Country Fire Authority.
The tragedy damaged almost 400 homes and killed 6,800 animals, causing billions of dollars in economic damage to Victoria.
