Catastrophic blazes ripped through the southeast of the nation on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency — that allows for forced evacuations beginning today — for the third time in the nation’s most populated region this fire season. That weather would create conditions as bad as — if not worse than — on Tuesday, the deadliest day in a months-long bushfire crisis, officials said. New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said that firefighters would be unable to extinguish or even control the raging blazes. “We’re happy to see every man and his dog leave town,” he said.
