Australian bushfires Rage as winds increase
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Australian bushfires Rage as winds increase*
14 Dec 2006 04:34:31 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Firefighters in Australia marked out homes
that can't be saved on Thursday as bushfires advanced on several towns
and burned uncontrolled across large areas of the country's southeast.
Strong winds drove a large blaze into the Tasmanian hamlet of Cornwall
and firefighters battled to save homes on the southern island state.
"They just stood in the flames with hoses and not a lot more," ABC radio
reported.
Fire authorities placed red tape across driveways of houses in Cornwall
and nearby St Marys, marking them as homes they would be unable to save
as an expected late wind change fanned a large blaze ravaging
surrounding bushland.
"If a property has trees right up to the back door, then it's going to
put lives at risk and we have to declare those houses as undefendable,"
Tasmanian Fire Service spokesman Michael Watkins told Reuters.
The St Marys blaze engulfed 14 houses in the coastal tourist town of
Scamander on Monday and has since moved to threaten three more rural
communities, driven by winds gusting at 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour.
Most of the homes, identified as at risk through a process called
"structural triage", were farms and isolated coastal homes surrounded by
thick scrubland, Watkins said.
In Victoria state, more than 4,000 Australian and New Zealand
firefighters were battling 11 blazes sparked by lightning strikes that
have burnt 420,000 hectares (1,621 square miles) of rugged mountain
bushland and which threaten several towns.
As temperatures soared again after two days of relatively cool
conditions that aided control efforts, authorities were considering
calling for reinforcements from the United States.
Firefighters were scrambling to save the historic Mt Buffalo Chalet in
the state's northeast as strong northerly winds pushed a blaze towards
the grand 96-year-old building. The fire claimed another ski resort on
Mt Buffalo on Tuesday.
Fire crews in New South Wales fought to control a fire burning in pine
forests to the southwest of the Australian capital, Canberra. Smaller
fires were also smouldering in South Australia state.
Firefighters say Australia faces an extreme fire danger this summer
after a drought that has turned many rural areas into tinder boxes.
Scientists fear climate change will bring more frequent higher
temperatures and less rainfall to the country.
Bushfires are a regular feature of Australia's summer. In January 2005,
the deadliest bushfires in 22 years killed nine people in South
Australia. Over the past 40 years, more than 250 people have been killed
in bushfires in Australia.