Fresh evacuation orders as bushfire threatens rural towns in Australia

A bushfire in Australia’s Victoria state raged out of control on Saturday, with authorities issuing a fresh evacuation alert at the highest danger rating for hundreds of residents in the state’s west.
Emergency services have urged thousands of people from 28 rural communities in the path of the bushfire to leave their homes and head towards evacuation centres.
The out-of-control blaze, about two hours’ drive northwest of state capital Melbourne, has already burned through about 10,000 hectares of forest and farmland. Almost 1,000 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blaze.
“They will be supported by water-bombing aircraft, including the large air tankers, so we are throwing everything we can at it,” Country Fire Authority chief Jason Heffernan told national broadcaster ABC. “I do expect the fire to remain rather dynamic and volatile,” he added. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
The emergency warning followed the downgrading on Saturday of another bushfire, sparked earlier this week, that has killed livestock, destroyed properties and forced more than 2,000 people to leave western towns and head to the city of Ballarat.
The new blaze was threatening the rural town of Amphitheatre, population 223. “Leaving immediately is the safest option, before conditions become too dangerous,” Vic Emergency said on its website, adding that the fire was “not yet under control.”
“In this dangerous and difficult time, all Australians are thinking of those working bravely to save lives and homes,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement released on social media. “Our hearts are with everyone facing the fires.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Saturday that three homes and several outbuildings had been destroyed this week in Victoria’s bushfire emergency.
Around 1,000 firefighters supported by more than 50 aircraft have battled the fires since they started.
Australia is currently in the grips of an El Nino weather pattern, which is typically associated with extreme phenomena such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
The last two bushfire seasons in Australia have been subdued compared with the 2019-2020 “Black Summer” when bushfires destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people and 3 billion animals.
After several wet years, Australia has been facing one of its most significant bushfire seasons since the catastrophic conditions of 2019-2020. During that so-called “Black Summer,” bushfires raged across the country’s eastern seaboard, razing swathes of forest, killing millions of animals and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.
Agencies