Relief supplies began reaching thousands of people stranded in fire-ravaged Australian towns yesterday after deadly bushfires ripped through popular tourist spots and rural areas leaving at least eight people dead.
Navy ships and military aircraft were deployed alongside emergency crews to provide humanitarian relief and assess the damage from the deadliest spate of blazes yet in a months-long bushfire crisis.
Police said three more bodies were discovered yesterday, bringing the confirmed death toll since late Monday to eight, including a volunteer firefighter who died when a “fire tornado” flipped his 10-tonne truck.
The latest deaths take to at least 17 the number of people killed in one of Australia’s most devastating bushfire seasons of recent years.
There were mounting fears for several others missing after the country’s southeast was devastated by out-of-control blazes, which destroyed more than 200 homes and left some small towns in ruins.
The fires encircled seaside communities to trap thousands of holidaymakers and locals, cutting electricity and communication services that in many areas remained down late Wednesday.
New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said emergency services faced a “real challenge” accessing isolated areas to help injured people, at least three of whom were later airlifted out suffering burns.
As fires raged across the country, some of the stranded were taking advantage of temporary road re-openings to return home while others faced a second trying night bedding down in make-shift accommodation.
In the coastal town of Eden, where evacuees were camping at football fields, volunteer Loureen Kelly said food was “running low very quickly” amid panic buying.
“Basic things like bread we ran out of yesterday. We had milk and very low to no fruit in town,” she told public broadcaster ABC, adding that the community had rallied to provide food to the evacuees.
In Mallacoota where 4,000 had huddled on the foreshore as fire swept through, authorities were preparing for the possibility that the town could be cut off for weeks.
Aircraft have begun dropping supplies and ships carrying two weeks’ worth of supplies arrived late yesterday.
Paramedics reportedly assessed the injured and moved those requiring further treatment to a 25-bed floating medical centre off the coast.
Many people have 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 to find his father’s house largely intact, but many other buildings reduced to
cinders.
Vehicles gutted by bushfires are seen in the town of Lake Conjola in New South Wales yesterday.
