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Fires send residents fleeing
12/12/2006 09:58 - (SA)
Hobart, Australia - Thousands of firefighters struggled to contain dozens of wildfires burning across southern Australia on Tuesday, sending residents fleeing their homes and destroying a popular ski lodge.
More than 3 000 firefighters were working to contain fires in four states, with the worst blazes centred in Victoria and the southern island state of Tasmania.
In Victoria, firefighters assisted by bulldozers and water bombing aircraft battled to dig containment lines around a series of wildfires that have already razed more than 250 000 of alpine and farm land.
On Tuesday, a popular ski lodge in Australia's Snowy Mountains was destroyed after firefighters failed to fend off the blaze, according to media reports.
Smaller fires were also burning on Tuesday in New South Wales and Western Australia, where officials were urging residents to evacuate their homes as the blaze approached the capital, Perth.
Wildfires are a regular feature of Australia's hot summer months, but the danger has been heightened this year by the country's worst drought in more than a century.
In Tasmania, firefighters were frantically digging containment lines in a bid to stop a fire that raged through the northeastern town of Scamander late on Monday, razing at least 14 homes, according to media reports.
No deaths were immediately reported, but some media reports said one person had been burned.
Tasmanian Fire Service spokesperson Danny Reid said firefighters had been helpless to stop the blaze amid 74km/h wind gusts.
"The conditions were that bad there was nothing to be done," he said. "It just went off like a bomb ... you can't fight that, you can't defend it. (It was a) horrible afternoon and night."
Scamander resident Sue Brown fled her home as the fire approached.
"It was terrifying, I just grabbed my dog and my daughter and we went," Brown said.
- AP
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