Bushfires rage across Tasmania
The Tasmanian Fire Service has declared a total fire ban on January 7/8. North-West coastal communities were put on high alert, triggering a number of evacuations, as 80km/h winds drove the Montumana fire towards their towns last night. Major fires continue to burn uncontrolled in Mathinna, in the north-east, near Bicheno on the East Coast, and a massive firefront has taken hold near Giblin River in the remote south-west.
The blazes destroyed more than 100 homes, including many in the small community of Dunalley. More than 100 people were missing after fire tore through the town. Authorities continued the grim search for bodies in burnt-out properties in the Dunalley area.
Intense bushfires blazed in Tasmania, an island south of Australia, from the beginning of January.
Extreme heat and strong winds fueled the fires. Temperatures in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, soared to a record high of 41.8°Celsius (107.2°Fahrenheit) on January 4.
Source: Examiner, Mercury, Earth Observatory
Featured image: Fire front impacting Dunalley on January 7 taken by Gravelly Beach firefighter Warwick Schultz
Tasmania and several of our other states and territories have suffered through horrendous heat and fire outbreaks. It has been a worrying time, and unfortunately, that even though some of our temperatures have dropped from the 40’s degree Celsius to other totally ‘opposite’ temperatures (like 7 degrees Celsius in Tasmania and, for example, 13C in Melbourne), we aren’t ‘out-of-the-woods’ yet. Even one region in Tasmania is expecting snow above 1000 metres today.
We have many more weeks of summer to go, and though some parts have had some good rainfall, it only takes a warm day to dry up this moisture and the already ‘tinder-dry’ landscapes will be ready to be concerning regions for potential catastrophic fires again.
Summer is usually a lovely time of the year for Oz, but I feel that many of us may be glad to see the end of this season already.