https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...h-australia-bushfire-crisis-victoria-12221750
World Thousands to sleep at beaches as fires encircle Australian towns
Mallacoota beach in Australia is seen in a picture shared on social media as wildfire burns nearby. (Photo: Twitter/@bluesfestblues)
31 Dec 2019 07:59AM (Updated: 31 Dec 2019 08:56PM)
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SYDNEY: Thousands of holidaymakers and locals were bedding down at beaches in fire-ravaged southeast Australia on New Year's Eve (Dec 31) after fleeing deadly blazes that ripped through popular tourist areas and cut off several towns.
In seaside communities along a 200km (135-mile) strip of coast, terrified crowds - wrapped in blankets and wearing make-shift facemasks - sought refuge from the inferno near the water.
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The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019, in this photo obtained from social media. Jonty Smith from Melbourne/via REUTERS
Some with boats earlier took to the sea in near-darkness, hoping to find safety, as one of the worst days yet in Australia's months-long bushfire crisis prompted a military deployment to help relief efforts.
Three people have died, five more are unaccounted for, and scores of properties were feared destroyed after a brutal 24 hours in which flames reached well-populated towns like Batemans Bay, normally bursting with visitors during Australia's summer holidays.
"We've got literally hundreds, thousands of people up and down the coast, taking refuge on the beaches" and in surf clubs, said Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
"In the majority of these cases, we're being told that people will be sleeping over at these clubs," Surf Life Saving Australia's Steven Pearce told ABC.
"We'll have instances of 500 people or more trying to sleep in and around our surf clubs."
READ: Thousands evacuated from Australian tourist haven as bushfires rage
READ: Bushfires reach Melbourne as heatwave fans Australia blazes
READ: Battle to save Australian wildlife as bushfires rage
Around 4,000 people were trapped on the foreshore in the town of Mallacoota, where towering columns of smoke turned the sky pitch black and nearby fires caused waves of "ember attacks".
Authorities said later on Tuesday that Mallacoota and a nearby town remained cut off, but the life-threatening fire front had finally passed.
"I understand there was a public cheer down at the jetty when that was announced," said Steve Warrington of the Country Fire Authority.
In some places Tuesday's blazes were so intense, the smoke so thick and the dry lightning storms precipitated by the fires so severe that aerial reconnaissance and waterbombing had to be halted.
The situation was scarcely better in inland rural communities, where countless more people were displaced and forced into make-shift camps.
The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019, in this photo obtained from social media. Jonty Smith from Melbourne/via REUTERS
The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019, in this photo obtained from social media. Jonty Smith from Melbourne/via REUTERS
Hundreds of "anxious and stressed and traumatised" people were gathered at Bega's showgrounds, said 44-year-old Beck Walker, who had been holidaying with her husband and two young sons when they heard sirens warning them to evacuate before dawn.
"We had to pack up and leave straight away," she told AFP. "It was pretty scary because the sky was red... By 7.30am we thought it was still night because the sky had turned black."
Australia's defence minister Linda Reynolds said helicopters, aircraft and naval ships would be sent to the region.
The military is expected to conduct damage assessments and potentially provide those displaced with food, shelter and electricity and even evacuation.
More back-up has been requested from firefighters in Canada and the United States.
UNPRECEDENTED
Australia's unprecedented bushfires have been burning for months, but the latest in a series of heatwaves and high winds have wrought new devastation.
The crisis has also hit cities like Sydney and Melbourne, home to several million people.
On Monday, around 100,000 people were urged to flee five Melbourne suburbs as the blaze bore down on homes just 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the centre of Australia's second-biggest city.
READ: Heatwave fans bushfires ahead of New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney
Sydney was again shrouded in toxic bushfire haze on Tuesday. City officials said Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks would go ahead, but a similar event has been cancelled in Canberra and several regional towns.
A Rural Fire Service spokesman said a 28-year-old volunteer firefighter - whose wife was due to give birth in May - died Monday in New South Wales when a "fire tornado" picked up an eight-tonne truck "and flipped it over".
A 63-year-old man and his 29-year-old son died in the devastated town of Cobargo in the latest spasm of destruction Tuesday.
Ten others, including two volunteer firefighters, have been killed so far this fire season.
POLITICAL BACKLASH
The blazes have destroyed more than 1,000 homes and scorched about 5.5 million hectares (13.5 million acres) - an area bigger than Denmark or the Netherlands.
The crisis has focused attention on climate change - which scientists say is creating a longer and more intense bushfire season - and sparked street protests.
READ: Australian PM announces compensation for volunteer firefighters
READ: Australian firefighters spend Christmas Day containing blazes
While conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison belatedly acknowledged a link between the fires and climate change, he has continued his staunch support of Australia's lucrative coal mining industry and ruled out further action to cut carbon emissions.
Jenifer James, 64, said she had spent hours Tuesday working to protect her Bermagui home in semi-darkness and surrounded by a "ring of fire".
She said the political response to the disaster had been "very poor" and more needed to be done to support volunteer firefighters. "They are so bloody tired," she told AFP.
https://www.dw.com/en/australia-thousands-trapped-on-beach-as-fires-approach/a-51841665
Australia: Thousands trapped on beach as fires approach
Thousand of people have evacuated to a beach in southeast Australia as raging fires encircled communities and cut off roads. A firefighter was killed when a "fire tornado" lifted a fire truck into the air.
More than 4,000 people were trapped on a beach by advancing fires in southeast Australia on Tuesday as devastating blazes encircled the seaside town of Mallacoota, where sea or airborne evacuation was being planned.
"Mallacoota is under attack, it is pitch black and very scary," Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said. "We have 4,000 people on the beach and nearby who are protected by our firefighters."
Some people took boats out at sea for fear that the fire would grow closer to the beach.
Authorities have been warning tens of thousands of holidaymakers to leave popular seaside towns for days and seek shelter elsewhere.
Read more: Oceans play role in Australian bushfires drama, say experts
"We're naturally very concerned about communities that have become isolated," Crisp said. He also confirmed "significant" property losses across the area.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there were plans to evacuate those trapped on the seaside by boat. There was also concern about four people missing. "We can't confirm their whereabouts," he said.
Fires are raging across many parts of the country, after 100,000 people were evacuated from the suburbs of Melbourne on Monday.
Massive fire fronts continue to blaze across other states. Sixteen "emergency fires" were designated in New South Wales and Victoria on Tuesday.
Aerial view of an approaching fire in New South Wales
Batemans Bay: 'We lost our home'
In the seaside town of Batemans Bay, New South Wales, residents also fled to beaches for safety as fires encroached upon the town.
Authorities have not yet confirmed whether buildings have been affected, but Youtuber Chloe Morello, a resident of the town, tweeted "We lost our home" after documenting herself fleeing from her house.
Three people are feared dead in small towns in New South Wales.
"We have three people unaccounted for and the potential for three potential fatalities as a result of the fire on the south coast," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told media.
"These fires moved quickly this morning," New South Wales Rural Fire Service said in a warning to residents. "They pose a serious threat to life. Do not be in their path. Avoid bushland areas. If the path is clear, move to larger towns or beaches to take shelter."
Police were checking drivers' licenses for people entering and exiting the areas affected by fires, redirecting those who were not residents.
The fire service tweeted a warning about a fire in Shoalhaven, New South Wales.
'Fire tornado' claims life
Firefighter Samuel McPaul became the 12th confirmed fatality since the fires broke out weeks ago. His 12-ton fire-truck was lifted into the air and spun around in a "truly horrific" incident on Monday.
"It was a fire tornado or a collapsed pyro convective column that had formed above the main fire front. That resulted in cyclonic winds that moved across the fireground," Fitzsimmons said.
Firefighters in Melbourne
Two other firefighters in the truck were seriously burned and are being treated in hospital.
The "freakish" weather incident resulted in the fire truck being lifted and dumped on its roof.
Over 34,000 square kilometers (13,100 square miles) of land have been razed since the fires began in October and more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed.
Conditions are expected to worsen with high temperatures and no rain in the forecast.
Despite major criticism, Sydney's environmentally impactful New Year's Eve firework display will go ahead on Tuesday.
Watch video 01:32
Australia to compensate volunteer firefighters
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ls,ed/cw (AFP, dpa)
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