Fast-moving fires torch national parks in southeast Australia
Firefighters were desperately trying to stop a cluster of fast-moving blazes in southeast Australia on Tuesday, as thousands of acres of national park burned and a farming community was forced to evacuate.
Lightning strikes on Monday evening ignited several fires in the Grampians National Park, a forested mountain range about 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Victoria's state capital Melbourne.
A separate fast-moving fire in Little Desert National Park in the west of the state has torn through almost 65,000 hectares (160,000 acres) in less than 24 hours, emergency services said, scorching an area almost as large as Singapore.
That fire had forced the evacuation of rural Dimboola before threat levels were downgraded on Tuesday afternoon.
"I'm incredibly thankful that no lives have been lost and we have no reports of injury either," emergency management commissioner Rick Nugent told reporters.
Chris Hardman from Forest Fire Management Victoria warned that weather conditions over the next few days are increasing the possibility the fires will spread.
"Right now firefighters are planning to do everything in their powers to protect communities," he said.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Kevin Parkyn said stifling heatwave conditions would settle over parts of Victoria on Saturday, escalating fire risks.
"When we look at the next seven to 10 days the main message is that there will be a hot dome over Victoria.
"Once we get into the weekend don't be surprised if we see heatwave conditions unfold across the state, and continue to intensify into next week.
"The landscape is dry, and if we continue to see these hot conditions, it will continue to dry the landscape out further."
Hotter temperatures are fuelling increasingly severe natural disasters across Australia, researchers have found.
Scientists have documented a marked increase in extreme fire weather across the country since the 1950s.
The unprecedented "Black Summer" bushfires of 2019-2020 killed 33 people and millions of animals, razed vast tracts of forest and blanketed major cities in thick smoke.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dubai Eye
11-03-2025
- Dubai Eye
Thousands of Australians without power as cyclone Alfred hits
Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia's Queensland state were without power on Sunday after Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings. Some 316,540 people were without power in Queensland's southeast, where the Gold Coast city was the worst-hit area with more than 112,000 without power due to the storm system, energy distributor Energex said in a statement. The storm reached the Queensland coast on Saturday as a "tropical low" after 16 days as a cyclone, prompting preparations by millions of residents. The state capital Brisbane was spared the brunt of the storm, which was also felt in southern neighbour New South Wales. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday that the "situation in Queensland and northern New South Wales remains very serious due to flash-flooding and heavy winds". "Heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts, and coastal surf impacts are expected to continue over coming days," Albanese said in Canberra, in remarks televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The nation's Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall that could spark flash flooding was developing on Sunday and could impact Brisbane as well as the Queensland regional centres of Ipswich, Sunshine Coast and Gympie, it said. Damaging winds with gusts of around 90 kph (60 mph) were also possible in the state, the bureau said on its website. "It is now just a weak low as it continues moving further inland through southeast Queensland, bringing lots of rain," said bureau meteorologist Dean Narramore. Brisbane Airport reopened on Sunday but posted on X that "ongoing weather may affect the schedule". Queensland will decide on Sunday on whether around 1,000 state schools, closed due to the bad weather, will reopen on Monday, said state Premier David Crisafulli. "Where it's safe to do so, schools will reopen with the exception of the Gold Coast, where there remains some significant damage. Power loss and issues with transport," Crisafulli said in televised comments from Brisbane. "One thing's remained consistent, and that is the community spirit and the resolve," he said. On Saturday, one man died in floodwater in northern New South Wales, while two Australian defence force vehicles en route to help residents in the city of Lismore were involved in a road collision that injured several officers, officials said.
Dubai Eye
08-03-2025
- Dubai Eye
Cyclone Alfred downgraded as millions stay indoors
Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred lingered off the south-east Australian coast on Saturday and forecasters said Brisbane is likely to miss the worst of the storm, a relief for millions of residents in the region who have been staying indoors. Alfred, now downgraded to a "tropical low", crossed the islands off the coast of Queensland overnight, and is heading towards the mainland in the coming hours, the Bureau of Meteorology has said. Thousands have been evacuated and local media reported that about a quarter of a million people are facing power outages as violent winds toppled power lines. Officials said one man had died in floodwater in New South Wales. Authorities urge residents to stay indoors and warned of worse to come. "The impacts are already being felt, and there is worse to come in the hours ahead," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a news conference from the National Situation Room in Canberra. Brisbane and the Gold Coast will be hit with heavy rain today, while the northern New South Wales city of Lismore, among the worst impacted by record floods over the years, has already begun flooding. Meanwhile two Australian defence force vehicles on their way to help residents in Lismore were involved in a road collision and several officers were injured, officials said. Brisbane Airport remains shut and the city has suspended public transport. More than 1,000 schools in southeast Queensland and 280 in northern New South Wales have been closed. Officials have described Alfred as a "very rare event" for Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, which was last hit by a cyclone more than half a century ago in 1974. The city of about 2.7 million had near misses from cyclones in 1990 and 2019.
Gulf Today
07-03-2025
- Gulf Today
Australian homes lose power and people evacuate as tropical cyclone approaches; 1 man missing
A man disappeared in floodwater, people were ordered to evacuate their flood-prone homes and tens of thousands of premises lost power on Friday as part of the Australian east coast was lashed by wind and rain ahead of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years. Tropical Cyclone Alfred was forecast to cross the coast of Queensland state north of downtown Brisbane, Australia's third-most populous city, early Saturday, Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said. "It's important to note that the exact track is still uncertain,' Collopy told reporters in Brisbane. Alfred was moving west with sustained winds near the center of 95 kph (59 mph) and gusting to 130 kph (81 mph). But the storm was expected to weaken as it approached Brisbane, Collopy said. "This will mean that destructive winds are unlikely for Brisbane itself, but damaging wind gusts to 120 kph (75 mph) are expected and they will develop quickly as the system approaches,' Collopy said. The missing man was driving an SUV that was washed off a bridge on Friday afternoon near the town of Dorrigo in northern New South Wales state, a region which has received some of the heaviest rainfall in recent days, a police statement said. The driver escaped the SUV and clung to a tree branch in fast-flowing water 30 meters (100 feet) from the river bank, police said. Police were able to speak to him before he was swept from the tree and disappeared underwater. Emergency teams have begun a search. At least five people have been rescued from floodwater as rivers rise in New South Wales. Two people narrowly escaped a large tree falling on their home in the Currumbin Valley in Queensland on Thursday night. The couple were lying only centimeters (inches) from where the tree came to rest in their bedroom, police said. "Thankfully, both patients sustained only minor injuries,' Queensland Ambulance Service said in a statement. In Queensland, 46,000 homes and businesses had lost power due to falling trees, mostly in Gold Coast, officials said. In flood-prone northern New South Wales, 43,000 premises had lost power by early Friday, but electricity was restored to 6,500 of those by afternoon, officials said. State Emergency Service acting chief superintendent Stuart Fisher said 19,000 people had been ordered to evacuate their New South Wales homes by noon or risk being trapped by floodwater. Cyclones are common in Queensland's tropical north but are rare in the state's temperate and densely populated southeast corner that borders New South Wales. The Sunshine Coast region north of Brisbane and the city of Gold Coast to the south are tourist destinations renowned for their extensive and picturesque white sandy beaches. But many of those beaches have eroded away over days by large waves and unusually high tides generated by Alfred. Alfred is expected to become the first cyclone to cross the coast in the Brisbane region since Cyclone Zoe hit Gold Coast in 1974 and brought widespread flooding. The cyclone has been tracking south from the tropics for weeks.
