Australian wildfires prompt urgent state of emergency, military evacuation

Fireman in Australia fights raging bushfire

(Image credit: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)

published 2 January 2020

The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) declared a weeklong state of emergency on Thursday as raging wildfires forced evacuations all along Australia's eastern coast, including a military-led naval rescue thousands of tourists and residents who fled to the beach in Mallacoota, Victoria. The fires have destroyed at least 281 homes in NSW and 68 in Victoria this week alone, authorities said, and at least eight people have died and 17 are missing in the two states. Since September, the brushfires have killed 18 people and destroyed more than 1,200 homes.

The state of emergency, which starts Friday morning, gives the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) authority to close roads, order mandatory evacuations, and do "anything else we need to do as a state to keep our residents and to keep property safe," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced. "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."

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance called the push to evacuate tourists from a 155-mile stretch of the scenic southern coast before Saturday the "largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we've ever seen." The Rural Fire Service bluntly told tourists that the coastal area from Batemans Bay to the border with Victoria "is not safe," adding, "Do not be in this area on Saturday." Many of the tourists who complied were promptly stuck in deadlocked traffic.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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