PERTH, Australia — Thousands of tourists fled Australia’s wildfire-ravaged eastern coast Thursday ahead of worsening conditions as the military started to evacuate people trapped on the shore further south. “There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw (on Tuesday),” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said. New South Wales authorities in the morning ordered tourists to leave a 250-kilometer (155-mile) zone along the picturesque south coast. The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record. Smoke from the wildfires caused the air quality in the national capital, Canberra, to be the world’s worst and was blowing into New Zealand.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer January 02, 2020 03:45 UTC