Australian authorities urge thousands to flee New South Wales bushfires
Wildfires in Australia’s New South Wales scorched thousands of hectares of bushland on Saturday (December 6), triggering the highest-level emergency warnings and evacuation calls for residents in the country’s most populous state.
Authorities issued an emergency alert for the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy area on the state’s central coast, home to more than 350,000 people and located about 45 kilometres north of Sydney, the state capital.
Public broadcaster ABC reported that up to 16 homes had been destroyed as fast-moving bushfires swept through parts of the region.
“Leave now if the path is clear towards Woy Woy,” the New South Wales Rural Fire Service said on its website, urging residents not to delay their departure.
A searing heatwave across the state, with temperatures reaching 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, sharply heightened fire danger, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
“Please look out for each other and follow advice from authorities,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement, as firefighters grappled with difficult conditions.
More than 50 bushfires were burning across New South Wales late on Saturday, officials said.
That included a major blaze in the Upper Hunter region, also at the top “emergency” warning level, which had already burned nearly 10,000 hectares (around 25,000 acres).
Authorities have repeatedly cautioned that Australia faces a dangerous bushfire season this summer after several relatively quiet years. The catastrophic “Black Summer” fires of 2019–2020 destroyed an area roughly the size of Turkey and claimed 33 lives.
Reuters
