2019 Australia Bushfires

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At least three people are dead so far and seven others missing in "unprecedented" bushfires in Australia.

As the fire emergency continued into its second day on Saturday, officials confirmed that more than 150 homes in New South Wales had burned down.

Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, while bridges, schools and power lines were destroyed.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the number of casualties would continue to rise throughout the day.

The two known victims were killed by a fire near Glen Innes, about 550 km (340 miles) north of Sydney.

Here is a quick summary of the latest:

— Three people confirmed dead, at least five unaccounted for

— At least 150 homes destroyed in NSW

— At least 19 firefighters injured, 16 members of the public hurt

— 73 fires burning in NSW, 50 in Queensland

— One fire at emergency level near Noosa

— Thousands evacuated in parts of Queensland; fires also burning in Perth

— Erratic behaviour of the fires continues to threaten homes, with thousands on alert

 

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Woman saves scorched koala from Australian bushfire

 

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Lewis the koala dies one week after rescue from Australia bushfire

Lewis, the koala who shot to internet fame after being rescued last week from massive wildfires that engulfed the Australian state of New South Wales, has died. Port Macquarie Koala Hospital made the decision to euthanize Lewis Tuesday after inspecting his wounds. It became clear that the marsupial's burns were not going to improve, the hospital said in a Facebook post.

"(Our) number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made," the hospital said.

Lewis had already been receiving "substantial pain relief," and the hospital warned Saturday that it was considering putting him to sleep if it was determined that "his injuries and his pain are not treatable and tolerable."

Lewis was estimated to be about 14 years old.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50553859

 

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Thousands of Koalas Have Been Killed in Australia Bushfires



Fires burning around New South Wales have razed koala habitats so extensively “we will probably never find the bodies”, an ecologist has told a parliamentary inquiry.

On Monday the NSW upper house inquiry held an urgent hearing into the state’s koala population and habitat after this season’s “unprecedented” bushfires destroyed millions of hectares of forest.
Some 90 fires continue to burn across the state, half of which are uncontained.

Mark Graham, an ecologist with the Nature Conservation Council, told the inquiry that koalas in most instances “really have no capacity to move fast enough to get away” from fast-moving crown fires that spread from treetop to treetop.

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...oala-bodies-may-never-be-found-ecologist-says

 

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Australia fires continue: Thousands told to evacuate in Victoria

Tens of thousands of residents and holidaymakers in the Australian state of Victoria have been told to evacuate amid worsening bushfire conditions.

Temperatures of over 40C (104F), strong winds, thunderstorms and a change of wind direction meant Monday would be a day of extreme danger, officials said.

Emergencies chief Andrew Crisp said those in the East Gippsland area should leave no later than Monday morning.



More than 100 fires are continuing to burn across Australia.

Meanwhile images take by NASA satellites show huge area around Sydney looking like atomic bombing aftermath from space.

 

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Fires Continue to Rage into the New Year



Navy ships and army aircraft have been dispatched to help fight devastating bushfires on Australia’s south-east coast that are feared to have killed at least 17 people, amid a spiralling debate over the government’s stance on the climate emergency.

Thousands of people have fled apocalyptic scenes, abandoning their homes and huddling on beaches to escape raging columns of flame and smoke that have plunged whole towns into darkness and destroyed more than 4m hectares of land.
Thousands of firefighters were still battling more than 100 blazes in New South Wales (NSW) state and nearly 40 in Victoria on Wednesday, with new fires being sparked daily by hot and windy conditions and, more recently, dry lightning strikes created by the fires themselves.

At the end of Australia’s hottest-ever decade, Canberra, the capital, was blanketed in a cloud of dense smoke that left its air quality more than 21 times the hazardous rating and could be seen more than 1,200 miles (2,000km) away, on the South Island of New Zealand, where it turned the daytime sky orange.
Fanned by soaring temperatures, strong winds and a terrible three-year drought, huge blazes have ravaged a tinder-dry landscape, causing immense destruction: since November, more than 900 homes have been lost in NSW alone.

With three months of the summer still to go, the early and devastating start to the country’s fire season has led authorities to rate it the worst on record and prompted urgent questions about whether the conservative government of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has taken enough action on global heating.

 

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Kangaroo escaping the flames

 

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Australia Fires Expected to Intensify During the Weekend

The blazes have strained the country’s firefighting resources, and the fire season, though still early on, already ranks as among the worst in Australia’s recorded history.

The state of New South Wales declared an emergency in its southeastern region on Thursday, calling on residents and vacationers to evacuate. Mr. Constance said the relocation was the largest in the region’s history.

To the south, the state of Victoria declared a disaster on Thursday, allowing it to authorize the evacuation of areas along its eastern coast.

Using any means they could find, the authorities were warning people to evacuate. But with communication in some areas spotty to nonexistent, it was not clear that everyone would get the message.

In just the past week, at least nine people have died, and many more are unaccounted for. In all, at least 18 people have died in this fire season.

The blazes have consumed more than 1,000 houses, killed countless animals and ravaged a Pacific coast region of farms, bush, eucalyptus forests, mountains, lakes and vacation spots. About 15 million acres have been blackened over the past four months, and more than 100 wildfires are still burning.

With the Southern Hemisphere summer barely underway and the country already reeling from record-breaking heat, no one expects relief any time soon. No rain is in the forecast.


Lake Conjola, in New South Wales.

Dust and smoke from Australia’s bushfires are reaching New Zealand, with its effects visible in snow near Franz Josef Glacier.


Cars lined up waiting to leave Manyana in New South Wales on Thursday.


Flames consumed trees along a road near Manyana, where hundreds of tourists were stranded.


Inspecting the wreckage of a fire truck that veered off a dirt track near Lake Conjola on Tuesday as a fire approached.


People were evacuated from the coastal town of Mallacoota by the Royal Australian Navy on Friday.

 

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Smoke from the wildfires that have devastated swathes of Australia is so extensive it will circle the planet to blight the country again, Nasa has said.

Experts said the volume of atmospheric debris generated by the months-long fires was “extraordinary”, and had already had a severe impact on nearby New Zealand.

The smoke has so far travelled more than 4,000 miles – with hazy skies reported as far away as Chile – and risen into the lower stratosphere, tens of thousands of feet up, a UV index created by Nasa from satellite data showed.

“The smoke is expected to make at least one full circuit around the globe, returning once again to the skies over Australia,” the US space agency said in a statement.

“Over the past week, Nasa satellites have observed an extraordinary amount of smoke injected into the atmosphere from the Australian fires and its subsequent eastward dispersal.”

The warning came as a tennis player collapsed on court and was forced to retire from Australian Open qualifying, after suffering a coughing fit brought on by wildfire-linked poor air quality. Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic retired at 6-5, 5-6 against Switzerland’s Stefanie Vogele, while the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard was also forced to take a medical time-out because of a sore chest.

Australia wildfire smoke to make 'full circuit' around globe, Nasa says

‘We have observed an extraordinary amount injected into the atmosphere,’ space agency says

www.independent.co.uk