Violent bushfires are currently ravaging the Australian state of Queensland, with authorities warning that lives are at risk. However, there is no improvement in sight: the weather conditions are still considered “extremely dangerous”.
The towns of Tara and Kogan, about 250 kilometers west of Brisbane, were particularly affected, local emergency services said on Tuesday. Neighbors were asked to leave their homes immediately.
‘Your life could be in danger. Soon it will be too dangerous to drive,” Queensland Fire and Emergency Services wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Houses destroyed
One resident told 9News that his entire home fell victim to the fire front. “The flames were seven meters high. I knew then that I was now homeless.” Emergency shelters had been set up nearby for those affected, Sky News Australia reported. A bushfire was also raging in the town of Millmerran, further south, but was now almost under control, fire spokesman Wayne Waltisbuhl said – with several houses there destroyed.
Unpredictable fire behavior
The weather conditions now remain extremely dangerous: “We are dealing with high temperatures and very low humidity, which makes fire behavior quite unpredictable at the moment,” Waltisbuhl explains. Authorities announced a complete ban on outdoor open fires in more than 30 regions until Saturday.
Last week, a serious bushfire destroyed thousands of hectares of land in the neighboring state of New South Wales. A man died trying to protect his farm from the flames. High temperatures and high winds repeatedly fanned the flames northeast of Sydney.
Authorities had warned weeks ago that the Australian spring and summer could be the most violent bushfire season since the devastating ‘Black Summer’ of 2019-2020. At the time, weeks of wildfires destroyed more than twelve million hectares of land, killing or displacing countless animals.
Source: Krone
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