Australia scrambles to reach thousands stranded by bushfires

Burning embers cover the ground as firefighters (back R) battle against bushfires around the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales on December 31, 2019. Thousands of holidaymakers and locals were forced to flee to beaches in fire-ravaged southeast Australia on December 31, as blazes ripped through popular tourist areas leaving no escape by land. Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP

SYDNEY — Fire-ravaged Australia has launched a major operation to reach thousands of people stranded in seaside towns after deadly bushfires ripped through popular tourist areas on New Year’s Eve.

Navy ships and military aircraft were deployed alongside emergency crews Wednesday to provide humanitarian relief and assess the damage from one of the worst days yet in Australia’s months-long bushfire crisis.

Three people died in just 24 hours and five others remain missing after the country’s southeast was devastated by out-of-control blazes, which destroyed dozens of homes and left some small towns in ruins.

Information was trickling out of coastal communities where thousands of holidaymakers and locals were thought to have seen in the New Year taking refuge from flames at surf clubs, as power outages and damage to telecommunications towers brought down phone lines and the internet.

New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said emergency services faced a “real challenge” trying to help injured people — some reportedly suffering burns — in isolated areas.

“We haven’t been able to get access via roads or via aircraft. It’s been… too dangerous and we simply can’t access, nor can the people in these areas get out,” he said.

Fires are still raging across the country, with homes and lives remaining under threat in Victoria state, and it is expected to take days for the military to reach people in remote areas.

‘Ember attacks’

There was cheers and relief in the town of Mallacoota — where towering columns of smoke turned the sky pitch black and nearby fires caused waves of “ember attacks” — after around 4,000 people who had huddled on the foreshore ringed by fire trucks survived unharmed.

“I understand there was a standing ovation at the end of that for the firefighters,” Victoria Emergency Management commissioner Andrew Crisp told public broadcaster ABC.

But the joy was short-lived for many who returned to find their homes burned to the ground, with the task of rebuilding shattered communities expected to take years.

Gary Hinton escaped flames roaring through Cobargo early Tuesday and returned to the stricken town later that night to find his father’s home largely intact, but many other buildings reduced to rubble.

“It wasn’t good. It’s turned out pretty devastating for everyone,” he told AFP.

Cooler temperatures and lighter winds provided a window of opportunity for relief efforts in some areas Wednesday, but there were concerns over new fires sparked by lightning late Tuesday in alpine regions.

“There’s a lot of people holidaying, again, up in those areas,” Crisp said. “We’ll be prioritising those and hitting them as hard as we can. We don’t need any new fires.”

Firefighters were racing to take advantage of the milder weather in the country’s south-east to contain dozens of blazes, as authorities warned the fire danger would spike on Saturday as temperatures soar again.

“At the very least, weather conditions will be at least as bad as what they were yesterday,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

This season’s blazes have killed at least 13 people, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and scorched about 5.5 million hectares (13.5 million acres) — an area bigger than Denmark or the Netherlands.

The unprecedented crisis has sparked street protests calling on the government to immediately act on climate change, which scientists say is creating a longer and more intense bushfire season.

Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under increasing pressure for his response, which has included holidaying in Hawaii as the disaster unfolded and reiterating his steadfast support for Australia’s lucrative — but heavily polluting — coal mining industry.