Officials told residents and others in the New South Wales (NSW) town of Eden to leave immediately and head north if they did not have a bushfire response plan. “If your plan is to leave, or you are not prepared, leave toward Merimbula or Pambula,” the NSW Rural Fire Service said in an alert. NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said he learned of the deployment through media reports. Massive bushfires have flared up in the vast country’s southeast in a months-long crisis, killing nearly half a billion native animals in NSW alone, scientists have estimated. Others have been left with no habitat to go back to, so starvation will be an issue in coming weeks.”

Source: Taipei Times January 05, 2020 15:56 UTC