Hundreds flee deadly bushfire in Queensland

Queensland firefighters are hoping a shift in wind direction tomorrow will help push a deadly, out-of-control bushfire that has destroyed 11,000 hectares of bushland away from the town of Tara.

About 350 people had fled the Tara fire to evacuation centres by Wednesday afternoon.

The Tara fire has claimed one life and destroyed at least five homes, although that number is expected to climb when authorities can access to affected areas. Several homes are still under threat, with the blaze about 15km north of town at 3pm on Wednesday.

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services inspector Warren Buckley told media on Wednesday that multiple teams from all over the south-east of the state are assisting crews from the Western Downs with getting the fire under control.

Efforts have been hindered by extreme temperatures reaching 42C, with humidity at about 15%, he said, and night time had offered little reprieve.

“The fires, at night, with the current weather that we’re having, are not dying down [overnight],” Buckley said.

“They’re actually maintaining intensity and becoming erratic overnight as well. So there will be last-minute messaging we ask people to maintain vigilance around that messaging and take the appropriate action.”

Buckley said they had a plan in place to protect the town of Tara – which has a population of 2,000 – including fire breaks and a large air tanker flying down from Bundaberg. The area north of town remains on emergency evacuation orders, but residents in town are not being evacuated.

Firefighters are expecting a windshift to the south overnight, which will push the fire north away from town, he said.

“I’m not going to mince words here, it’s a dangerous fire,” Buckley said.

“And people need to take heed of all the warnings.”

The Queensland police service acting superintendent Scott Stahlhut said hundreds of evacuees were transferred from the Tara evacuation centres to better conditions in Dalby earlier today.

“It really comes down to capacity,” he said.

“Tara’s a relatively small community and managing evacuation centres is resource intensive.”

Stahlhut said it was too early to tell if the fire was deliberately lit.

Buckley warned the fire season had only just begun.

The QFES is currently negotiating with other states for reinforcements, and has deployed half a dozen aircraft to Tara alone.

“This is gonna go on for a long time,” he said.

“We’re planning for this to go out past through Christmas and into early next year. It’s gonna be a long campaign until we get some rain. Please bear with us. We can’t have a fire truck on every corner. But please take care.”

Millmerran homes evacuated
Another 50 evacuees have fled homes in Millmerran. .

Rochelle Hinks, who organised a local clothes drop for fire victims, said she has been overwhelmed by community support.

Half a dozen volunteers sorted through bags of donated clothes for families affected by the fires, in a shed out the back of a Millmerran caravan park on Wednesday.

“We’ve had a few families come through today with little kids who have lost their homes … It’s hard seeing that, but it’s harder on them.”

One survivor said residents of Tara had donated everything from petrol to escape the fire with, to land to agist animals on.

“We are overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness the people of Tara have mustered,” Darrel Cross said.

The fire is the third tragedy to strike the Tara community in a year, including another bushfire in February, and last year’s horror police shooting at Wieambilla.

The Western Downs mayor, Paul McVeigh, said the community would endure.

“That’s an immediate impact on those families now, and they’ll probably never get over that,” he said.

“But … we’re a strong community.

“Certainly the focus is on what the future holds.”

With hundreds of people potentially homeless, McVeigh said it would take “many, many months” to rehome people locally.

“Trying to prioritise getting people into shelter immediately is the number one issue,” he said.

“The number two issue will be how we actually reunite them with their properties and how we house back on their property. This isn’t a quick fix.”

Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, on Wednesday warned that bushfire conditions were expected to remain difficult until the weekend, with high to extreme fire danger expected in central and southern interior parts of the state until Friday.

“Fast-moving, wind-driven fires are likely from the early hours of tomorrow morning,” she said.

Police found the body after a bushfire near the Western Downs town at about 6.30pm.

“The remains will be forensically examined to confirm the identity; however, police believe they could be those of a missing adult male,” a Queensland police spokesperson said.

NSW faces elevated fire danger
Meanwhile, more than 900 NSW Rural Fire Service personnel were deployed to battle 72 bush or grass fires burning across the state, with 23 blazes yet to be contained as of Wednesday afternoon.

High to extreme fire danger ratings are forecast for much of Australia this week with temperatures in parts of multiple states expected to be several degrees above the October averages.

The RFS operational officer Emilie Koek told AAP forecast thunderstorms could have the potential to spark new fires and erratic winds would cause challenges for firefighters.

She said the public should report unattended fires immediately to ensure crews could attend as soon as possible to contain them.

“There is still elevated fire danger over the coming days,” Koek said.

“Potentially over the weekend conditions could ease, but we will have to see how the forecast pans out.”

Investigations continue into several bushfires on the NSW mid-north coast that are believed to be deliberately lit.

Source: The Guardian