SYDNEY: Australia ord­er­ed residents and tourists out of the path of raging bushfires on Thursday as the country braced for a weekend heatwave expected to fan the deadly inferno.

Catastrophic blazes ripped through the country’s south-east on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers.

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency that allows for forced evacuations beginning on Friday, for the third time in Australia’s most populated region this fire season.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly but we also want to make sure we’re taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday,” she said.

It came as the NSW Rural Fire Service declared two “tourist leave zones” stretching almost 300 kilometres from the town of Nowra along the picturesque coast to neighbouring Victoria state, where people are also being urged to flee.

Residents and visitors in two inland areas — which include popular holiday resorts in the Snowy Mountains — were also told to leave, with people given less than 24 hours to evacuate before a heatwave brings gusting winds and temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.

That weather will create conditions officials say will be as bad as — if not worse than — Tuesday, the deadliest day in a months-long bushfire crisis.

At least 18 people are now known to have died in one of Australia’s most devastating bushfire seasons yet, and there are growing fears the toll could rise dramatically, with officials in Victoria saying 17 people were missing in the state.

Many tourists and residents spent two nights isolated with no electricity or telecommunications, before authorities on Thursday declared some roads safe to use.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance called it the “largest evacuation of people out of the region ever”, with queues of cars reportedly stretching for kilometres along roads towards Sydney and Canberra as thousands fled.

One driver said it had taken her three hours to travel just 50 kilometres.

Navy helps

The number of homes confirmed destroyed in recent days has topped 400, with that figure expected to rise as firefighters reach communities still isolated by flames.

Two Navy ships arrived in Mallacoota — where people huddled on the foreshore for hours on New Year’s Eve as a fire bore down on the remote town — to begin evacuating up to 4,000 people in an operation officials say could take weeks.

Military aircraft have also been working with emergency crews to drop relief supplies into isolated areas and continue assessing the extensive fire damage.

This season’s blazes have destroyed more than 1,300 homes and scorched over 13.5 million acres across the country — an area far greater than Denmark or the Netherlands.

The unprecedented crisis has sparked street protests calling on the government to immediately act on climate change, which scientists say is creating a longer and more intense bushfire season.

Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under increasing pressure for his actions, which included holidaying in Hawaii as the disaster unfolded and reiterating his support for Australia’s lucrative — but heavily polluting — coal mining industry.

In his first official press conference since the latest blazes flared, Morrison said on Thursday said “every absolute effort” was being made to assist affected communities.

“The best way to respond is the way that Australians have always responded to these events and that is to put our confidence in those who are fighting these fires,” he said, while defending Australia’s climate change policies as “sensible”.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2020