Skies over southeastern Australia darkened with huge plumes of smoke and lightning storms yesterday after an epic heatwave, with raging wildfires claiming one life and residents warned to “leave and live.”
A cool change began sweeping the states of South Australia and Victoria as evening fell, bringing much-needed relief to millions of residents who have sweltered through up to five days of scorching temperatures in excess of 40°C.
The baking heat has triggered thousands of wildfires since shifting on Monday from the west coast, where it triggered an inferno that razed 56 homes and claimed one life.
Photo: AFP
Authorities were braced for horrific conditions as the cooling southerly change brought wind gusts of up to 120kph, fanning scores of fires across the two states and hampering aerial firebombing operations.
A towering firestorm sent more than 100 people fleeing their homes in the Grampians National Park west of Melbourne, killing a woman at Roses Gap and prompting authorities to warn of further casualties.
“These fires will be very intense and erratic this afternoon,” Victoria state’s fire commissioner Craig Lapsley told reporters. “There is a fair chance of losing property and even, if people are caught in the wrong space, life could be lost.”
In the Grampians, people started evacuating the holiday town of Halls Gap on Thursday evening after seeing a “big red glow on top of the mountain,” said Rohan McDonald, owner of the Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park.
“We are covered in smoke, there is a massive plume that looks like an atomic bomb has gone off over the top of the mountain,” he said.
Lapsley said the out-of-control blaze, which has already ripped through more than 21,500 hectares and was just 2km from Halls Gap late yesterday, was running so hot it was “creating its own weather.”
The convection column — a plume of hot gases, smoke, ash and other debris created by the fire — was causing lightning strikes which were starting other blazes, he added.
The smoke was so thick witnesses said it was like fog.
Lapsley said the four-day heatwave in Melbourne had brought “the same if not worse conditions” than those that had preceded the so-called Black Saturday wildfires in 2009 which had claimed 173 lives.
“Today is one of those days that certainly will be marked in the history of Victoria,” Lapsley said. “We’re only at the start of what is a significant fire period.”
There were about 57 fires raging across Victoria late yesterday, seven of which were declared emergencies, and Victoria Emergency Minister Kim Wells urged people to heed evacuation warnings.
“If the fire danger rating is severe, extreme or code red, you are risking your life and that of your families if you choose to stay behind. The message is very clear — leave and live,” he said.
In neighboring South Australia, which is in the fifth day of an extreme heatwave, two homes were razed in the Barossa winemaking region and there were three fire emergencies declared across the state, with properties under threat.
The Country Fire Service (CFS) was expecting lightning strikes as the cool change came through, further complicating firefighting efforts.
“We’re expecting a number of new starts as a result of lightning,” CFS head Greg Nettleton said.
The heatwave continued to take its toll on residents, with more than 400 heat exposure cases reported in Victoria since Tuesday and 51 heart attacks — a significant increase on normal figures.
“For an hour this morning we were doing one cardiac arrest every six minutes and we expect this will continue until this weather cools down,” Ambulance Victoria operations manager Paul Holman said.
Melbourne peaked at 43.9°C at 4pm and had shed 13°C two hours later, while the South Australia capital Adelaide hit 42.7°C just before 2:30pm and was slowly cooling off.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the