Whole Australian towns face being razed to the ground today in what could be the worst day for bushfires so far this season.
Mass evacuations in southern New South Wales and eastern Victoria were underway last night as officials warned that 46C heat and high winds will see terrifying fires spread wider than ever before.
The 1,300 inhabitants of Batlow in southern NSW have been told by officials the historic apple-growing town is ‘undefendable’.
Officials have said they will not fight fires there because a wall 1000C flame will rapidly sweep over 100km in one day and make the area a ‘dead man zone’.
‘We don’t want firefighters in the path of it,’ said RFS Public Liaison Officer Brad Stewart. Residents were told to leave on Thursday but anyone left will have to seek shelter because it’s now too late to get out.
Meanwhile, fires raging outside Sydney could threaten urban areas on the city’s outskirts such as Penrith
Last night thousands fled a 14,000km evacuation zone – an area roughly the size of Vanuatu – from Bateman’s Bay to the Victorian border as officials sent 250,000 text messages telling people to get out before first light.
An evacuation was also under way in South Australia’s Kangaroo Island as raging fires threatened almost all of the holiday hotspot, leaving only the more built-up areas in the east safe.
Air Force personnel help evacuees out from a helicopter after being rescued from the fire ravaged Mallacoota region in Victoria
Catastrophic fire conditions are forecast in fire ravaged regions of south-eastern Australia, leading firefighters to concede that entire towns may be lost in the raging inferno. Pictured: a wild fire burning out of control on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island
A burnt out road sign stands in front of a backdrop of singed trees on a roadway in Sarsfield in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, where there are 28 people still missing after intense fire conditions tore through the area last week
Residents in Batlow have been warned their town cannot be saved that if the fire breaks out the way it is forecast to on Saturday
Firefighters in Nowra on the New South Wales south coast struggle while tending to a wild blaze in windy conditions on New Years Eve
The fire spread prediction chart shows a large red area in New South Wales south-west in the area where Batlow is located
Earlier on Friday the defence force airlifted people out of Mallacoota in eastern Victoria after the town was cut off by road closures.
Some 1,100 more were being transported in a gruelling 20-hour journey on the HMAS Choules to Western Port where they will arrive on Saturday night.
In a desperate plea late on Friday night, the NSW Rural Fire Service begged those in the path of fires to ‘leave tonight’ as they pose a ‘serious threat to life’.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack urged locals to get out while they can.
‘If they haven’t got the ability to defend their home, or if they’re in an area where they’ve been advised to leave, then please heed that advice,’ Mr McCormack said.
‘We can always rebuild houses but we can’t restore lives.’
‘People getting to places of safety right now is incredibly important,’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison said as he toured burnt-out towns on Friday.
‘Because in about 24 hours from now, or even less, the situation will be far more dangerous.’
A kangaroo pictured fleeing outside a burning building in Conjola on the New South Wales south coast on New Years Eve
Thousands of people have already fled Australia’s bushfire-ravaged southeast as a state of emergency is declared and catastrophic fire conditions approach.
Streams of cars, caravans, trucks and buses clogged the highways as people heed the warnings to leave.
Dozens of makeshift campsites are springing up in towns deemed safe by authorities, straining resources despite the military’s ongoing relief operation.
For Anthony Ellis, who evacuated his family from Surf Beach near Batemans Bay in NSW, leaving was a no-brainer after a blaze burned too close for comfort on New Year’s Eve.
‘The smoke behind us just changed,’ he said. ‘It was just solid walls of darkness.’
The family made for the beach, where they were trapped for the next five hours as the fire roared through nearby towns.
‘You couldn’t even risk it to move through the suburb to check on other people,’ Mr Ellis said. ‘We decided we’re not going to risk it twice in one week.’
A state of disaster has been declared in Victoria as the navy continues its evacuation of about 1,200 trapped tourists and residents from fire-ringed Mallacoota, in East Gippsland.
The town was hit by a massive blaze on Tuesday as 4,000 people sheltered on a beach amid apocalyptic scenes that were broadcast across the globe.
Evacuees, many with pets, will travel for about 20 hours to the Mornington Peninsula, where an evacuation centre is likely to be set up.
Military personnel were called in to evacuate people after fire reached the edge of the township and blocked their exit. Most were being taken on a 17-hour voyage by ship to the HMAS Cerberus naval base at Western Port.
A family is seen heading to HMAS Choules on Friday (pictured) to begin their 20-hour-long sail to safety, after fires ravaged Mallacoota and left thousands stranded on the beach
Families with small children were the first to be evacuated on a landing craft to MV Sycamore (pictured) on Friday, just 24 hours before catastrophic weather conditions arrive
Premier Daniel Andrews says 28 people remain missing in Victoria, on top of two men confirmed dead, the latest a man found at a property near Genoa, in the state’s east.
An eighth person was confirmed dead in NSW on Friday after police found a missing 72-year-old man’s body in the town of Belowra, in the state’s south.
It’s bring’s the death toll for the fire season to 17 in NSW after police confirmed the death of a 59-year-old man, who was burned while sheltering from a bushfire in a water tank in November.
In South Australia, where one person has died and dozens of homes have been destroyed this summer, a bushfire on Kangaroo Island has become ‘virtually unstoppable’ after it jumped containment lines.
An emergency warning had been declared across the entire island and tourists have been evacuated.
Late on Friday, the Country Fire Service also issued an emergency warning for a blaze in the Mount Lofty Ranges.
In Western Australia, a series of out-of-control bushfires on Nullarbor Plain have cut the state’s only sealed road to South Australia, causing shortages in some Perth supermarkets and stranding hundreds of truckies and travellers at a remote roadhouse on the Eyre Highway.
A second home has been destroyed in Tasmania by a bushfire police believe was deliberately lit. Hot and windy weather will push the fire danger to very high on the weekend, with a total fire ban declared across much of the island.
The ACT has declared a state of alert as toxic smoke blankets the capital.
Across Australia, 20 people have died and more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed in bushfires this season.
Dramatic footage has captured the moment a fire whirl was formed in a wild bushfire on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island