Warm winds yesterday fanned multiple blazes in an unusually early start to Australia’s annual fire season, prompting a state leader to warn of a “horror” summer of bushfires ahead.
Firefighters said they had been battling 18 out-of-control bushfires in the morning in New South Wales (NSW), some in the Bega Valley region of the state’s southeastern coast.
At least three homes were lost in the flames, NSW firefighters said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
One person was taken to a hospital after a tree fell on a car, state police said.
“Be prepared for a horror summer,” NSW Premier Chris Minns told a news conference in Bega.
“We are one week into October and we are experiencing midsummer conditions,” he said, citing various hot days above 30°C. “Bushfires love this environment and it is devastating for regional communities in particular.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed the sentiment that the fire season had started early — just one month into the Australian spring.
“We are standing here. We can see, we can smell the impact that these fires are having,” he told the news conference.
Firefighters have been saying for some time that they are worried about dry conditions making the season more dangerous, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers said.
“The fire season is absolutely here, and we need to take this seriously,” he said.
Scattered fires have swept rural neighborhoods around the country over the past few weeks.
On Tuesday, people were told to evacuate various rural areas of Victoria or take shelter as gusty winds fanned “very challenging” bushfires.
About 650 firefighters battled fires across 17,000 hectares, Victoria officials said, although rains later in the day dampened the flames.
The wet weather yesterday led to a flood evacuation warning for parts of several rural neighborhoods about 160km east of Melbourne.
After several wet years, experts are expecting the coming Australian summer to bring the most intense bushfire season since 2019-2020. During that “black summer,” bushfires raged across Australia’s eastern seaboard, razing swaths of forest, killing millions of animals and blanketing cities in smoke.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
New Zealand is open to expanding its frigate fleet beyond its current two vessels, with New Zealand Minister of Defence Chris Penk saying “no options are off the table” as the government weighs buying new warships from Japan or the UK. The government yesterday said it is looking to replace its two aging Anzac-class frigates, which were both commissioned almost 30 years ago. The UK’s Type 31 and Japan’s Mogami-class warships are the options under consideration. Speaking in an interview, Penk said there is potential to increase the number of frigates the nation purchases. “We need a certain amount of capability as a
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
RSS