Tourists Flee Australia
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tourists-firefighters-flee-as-new-heatwave-fans-australia-blazes/ar-BBYrWnoAFP 10 hrs ago
Tourists, firefighters flee as new heatwave fans Australia blazes Tourists and firefighters were forced to flee vast fires burning in southeastern Australia on Monday, as a heatwave rekindled devastating bush blazes across the country.
Authorities said "quite a number" of the 30,000 tourists visiting the usually picturesque southeast tip of the continent had heeded calls to evacuate.
More than a dozen blazes are raging in the East Gippsland countryside, some so intensely that hundreds of firefighters were pulled back beyond a firefront estimated to stretch 1,000 kilometres (600 miles).
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It is the latest emergency in Australia's devastating summer fire season, which has been turbocharged by a prolonged drought and climate change.
Ten people have been killed, more than 1,000 homes destroyed and more than three million hectares (7.4 million acres) -- an area bigger than Belgium -- have been scorched.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
> Comment #4, canetoad in West Gippsland, (SE of Melbourne) Australia, yesterday, Sunday Dec. 29, 5pm EST
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142412754
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Star Member canetoad (10,847 posts)
4. Emergency services incident map for Victoria
From a few minutes ago.
Gippsland is the southern section, east of Melbourne. I'm in West Gippsland which is roughly 200kms west of the worst fires in the east.
Bracing for a very hot day. Bowls of water filled for the birds and insects (a few floating twigs for insects to land on). House locked down and dark.
It's 9am and already about 32 deg.C.
Appreciate your thoughts, appalachiablue. 
The fires in the east are still spreading out of control. To give you an idea of scale, Victoria is a bit bigger than Idaho and a bit smaller than Oregon in sq. kms.
