Thousands of people have evacuated from areas to the south of Australia to the notice of the authorities that the climatic conditions of iran for the worse over the weekend. The roads have been filled of people looking for safe places, away from the fires that have already devastated five million hectares so far this season. The situation has caused that the prime minister of the State of Victoria (whose capital is Melbourne), Daniel Andrews, has declared a state of catastrophe in six regions. “If you go, you have to do it. If you're in these areas we cannot guarantee your safety”, has warned Andrews in a press conference. “We face a risk unprecedented for the life and the property in the next few days, with warm weather, much wind and a drought unprecedented,” added Andrews.

so far this week, ten people have died across the country. Other 28 remain missing in Victoria (south of Australia) where they have burned 800,000 acres, especially in East Gippsland, a large area of forests. Here it is expected that this Saturday the mercury exceeds 40 celsius degrees. For its part, Melbourne, has spent the Friday covered by the smoke of the fire.

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According to a report in the local newspaper The Age, the fires, which plague Australia with particular virulence since last November, have been emitted to the atmosphere in just three months, the same amount of carbon dioxide that the country emits in a whole year. According to alert to the experts, Australia will be affected in the coming decades by seasons of fires each time more strong and early. Normal until now in Australia was that the seasons of fires began with the summer (which begins in the southern hemisphere the 21st of December), but this year they have advance.

on the other hand, the authorities have begun the evacuation of the people trapped on the beaches of Mallacoota, where 4,000 people had been encircled by fires in the end of the year. This Friday, in an operation that lasted eight hours, to a few thousand people were evacuated successfully from this location to the southeast of the country, on board the rescue ship HMAS Choules. According to The Age, several parents decided to put your children safe and stay to help in the work of extinguishing the fire.

Criticism of the prime minister

The former commissioner of firefighting and rescue in the State of New South Wales (capital Sydney), Greg Mullins, has accused Scott Morrison, the prime minister of the country, not to prepare properly for this fire season that is expected that was going to be hard. “This is what 28 other former heads of fire and I tried to warn the prime minister in April or may. Not listened to us,” said Mullins on ABC Radio. “[The attitude of the prime minister climate change] reminds Me of the president to Trump when there are multiple shootings in your country. Will not tell you anything about the weapons. We have to talk about climate change,” added Mullins.

Morrison has ensured that the policies of reduction of current emissions are sufficient to protect the environment. “My simple request is to be patient, to have confidence in the state agencies that are leading the operational response on the ground”, noted the prime minister this Friday have visited a help center for those affected. Morrison tries to be close to the victims after the criticism that rained down on the part of the public opinion and the opposition for their vacation in Hawaii, which was forced to suspend last month, in full crisis of the fire.

In New South Wales, the region most affected by the fires have already burned 3.6 million acres and there are currently 150 active fire. Chris Dickman, professor of Ecology at the University of Sydney, has calculated that the fires have killed in this State alone to 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles. A spokesman of the university has pointed out that the “figure is conservative”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. “It is likely that many of the affected animals have died directly by the fire, while others succumbed later due to the exhaustion of the food and the lack of shelter, in addition to predation by other wild animals”, have pointed out from the university.

Date Of Update: 03 January 2020, 16:00