The country’s east coast was dotted with apocalyptic
scenes on the last day of the warmest decade on record in Australia.
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| A house under threat from an approaching bushfire in Conjola, Australia, on Tuesday.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times |
SYDNEY, Australia — As the fire stalked the east coast of
Australia on Tuesday, the daytime sky turned inky black, then blood red.
Emergency sirens wailed, followed by the thunder of gas explosions. Thousands
of residents fled their homes and huddled near the shore. There was nowhere
else to go.
Apocalyptic scenes like these in Mallacoota, a vacation
destination between Sydney and Melbourne, came on the last day of the warmest
decade on record in Australia. The country is in the grip of a devastating fire
season, with months of summer still to go, as record-breaking temperatures,
strong winds and prolonged drought have ignited huge blazes across the country.
The government prepared to deploy navy vessels and
military helicopters to help fight the fires and evacuate people.
The devastation is immense. In the state of New South Wales,
which includes Sydney, more than 900 homes have been destroyed and nine million
acres have burned since November. About 100 fires are currently raging in the
state, with about three dozen more across the border in Victoria. At least 11
people have died.
Australia is normally hot and dry in summer, but climate
change, which brings more frequent and longer periods of extreme heat, worsens
these conditions and makes vegetation drier and more likely to burn. The
country recently concluded its driest spring on record. That was followed in
mid-December by the hottest day on record, with average highs across the
country of 41.9 degrees Celsius (107.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Polls show a large majority of Australians view climate
change as an urgent threat and want stronger government action to combat it.
The catastrophic fire conditions have put an intense focus on the Australian
government’s failure to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which traps heat
when released into the atmosphere and contributes to global warming.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a conservative, has made it
clear that Australia’s economic prosperity comes first. Even as his country
burned, he has said repeatedly that it is not the time to discuss climate
policy.
Editors’ Pick
As Australia has seen a surge of climate activism in
recent months, Mr. Morrison has gone so far as to suggest that the government
should outlaw efforts by environmental groups to pressure businesses with
rallies and boycotts. Other members of Mr. Morrison’s government have answered
calls for action with insults; the deputy prime minister called people who care
about global warming “raving inner-city lunatics.”
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| Sky glowing red in Mallacoota.Credit...Jonty Smith, via Reuters |
More recently, Mr. Morrison has been in damage control
mode over his decision to vacation in Hawaii even as the authorities raised
emergency fire warnings across the country. He cut the trip short after two
volunteer firefighters died.
Those deaths raised new questions about Australia’s
reliance on an overwhelmingly volunteer firefighting force. The physical and
emotional toll on the thousands of unpaid firefighters has been mounting as
some have worked shifts of 12 hours or more. After initially resisting calls to
compensate firefighters, Mr. Morrison announced limited daily payments.
The fires have been a constant presence in Australia for
weeks, but the eerie images that emerged on social media on Tuesday cast them
in a new light, and seemed to be a harbinger for the new decade that the
country rang in hours later.
In Mallacoota, residents in boats shared footage of
themselves wearing masks and life vests as they waited under the blazing red
sky. Others opted to stay and defend homes, likening burning trees to
“exploding infernos” and describing the roar of the blazes.
In Batemans Bay, four hours north, residents sat on
folding chairs along the beach, life rafts at the ready, as a fire encircled
the town and burned homes. To the south, in Cobargo, a father and son died in a
blaze as they tried to protect the family home.
With several blazes burning out of control, thousands were
stranded in evacuation centers in other towns along the coast as firefighters
told people to stay put. Tens of thousands of people were without power, the
Australian military was authorized to deploy aircraft and naval vessels, and
the government requested firefighting help from Canada and the United States.
In Sydney, where heavy smoke from fires has obscured the
sun many days this summer, officials rejected calls to cancel the city’s
signature New Year’s Eve fireworks display after the Rural Fire Service in New
South Wales approved the celebration. One blaze reached the western part of
Sydney, threatening homes.
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Evacuating on a boat in Mallacoota.Credit...Ida Dempsey
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The fires have been so fierce that they have created their
own weather systems. On Monday night, a volunteer firefighter died after a
phenomenon called a fire tornado — turbulence caused by extreme rising heat —
in New South Wales caused a 10-ton fire truck to roll over.
The firefighter, Samuel McPaul, 28, was expected to become
a father in May. He was the third volunteer firefighter to die this fire
season; the other two, who also died in an accident involving a fire truck,
were fathers of young children.
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Firefighters protecting a house in Conjola.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
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In Mallacoota, just over the border in the state of
Victoria, residents had spent Monday night preparing to evacuate. As the fire
approached, some gathered at a community center, while others climbed into
boats in bodies of water.
“I’ve never seen
anything like it,” said one man filming his escape on a boat.
Ida Dempsey of Melbourne, who spends Christmas every year
in the area with her family, also took refuge on the water.
“We couldn’t see a thing. It was pitch black,” Ms. Dempsey
said. “We had face masks; the smoke was very bad.”
She commended fire officials for keeping people calm. “If
we didn’t have a plan, I would have panicked a bit more,” she said.
In Batemans Bay, said James Findlay, who grew up there,
the fire came so quickly that there was no hope to save his family home.
“Everything’s gone,” he said.
His parents, Mr. Findlay said, were in shock.
“People have lost their homes, their farms, and people
have lost their lives,” he said.
