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4 killed as firefighters try to put out Australian bushfires
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AT least four people died in bushfires raging in parts of Western Australia, authorities said yesterday, with a shocked local community lamenting the “day from hell.”
Several fast-moving blazes, sparked by lighting, were burning around Esperance some 750 kilometers southeast of Perth, with hundreds of firefighters working round the clock in searing temperatures to put out the first serious fires ahead of the Australian summer.
“Sadly, police have confirmed four fatalities,” state Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Wayne Gregson said, adding that two women and two men, in two separate cars, died trying to escape the flames.
“I can also record that at this stage there are three houses or buildings unconfirmed as being lost in those fires around Esperance,” said Gregson.
One of the men who died was reportedly a local farmer who had been driving to neighboring properties to warn people before making his own escape. The other victims were said to be foreign backpackers but police would not confirm this.
Authorities advised local residents of an immediate threat to lives and homes.
“The bushfire is moving in a north-easterly direction. Flames are up to two meters high,” the Department of Fire and Emergency Services said, adding that warnings were issued for nearby areas.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the government was ready to offer assistance.
“Summer can be a very challenging and dangerous time in Australia as we know and this is a tragic event,” he said.
“We are obviously ready to provide assistance whenever required,” Turnbull said.
Bushfires are common in Australia’s hotter months. “Black Saturday,” the worst firestorm in recent years, devastated the southern state of Victoria in 2009. The bushfire razed thousands of homes and left 173 people dead.
Esperance Shire President Victoria Brown said the remote coastal community was in shock.
“It was the day from hell, it was devastating,” she told national radio. “They got many of the fires out, but there were a few still burning, and they combined into an inferno.”
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