BOBIN:
Catastrophic bushfires in eastern Australia have killed at least three people
and forced thousands from their homes, with the death toll expected to rise as
firefighters struggle towards hard-to-reach communities. In the normally
picturesque coastal town of Forster - one among dozens hit along the eastern
seaboard - vast plumes of smoke shot out from multiple blazes as water bombers
swooped in overhead.

And in Bobin,
around 60 kilometers north of Forster, the whole town was scorched with some
fires soaring 10 meters along the tree canopy. Some homes were completely
burned to the ground in the small rural town, and in one just a fireplace could
be seen among the smouldering rubble. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that,
if needed, the military could be called on to help some 1,300 firefighters who
are tackling around 100 separate blazes.

Several people
are still unaccounted for and 30 more have been injured - mostly firefighters
working for hours on end in smoky, smouldering scrubland and blazing forests of
towering eucalyptus. "My only thoughts today are with those who have lost
their lives and their families," Morrison said, as hundreds of civilians
also volunteered to help their hard-hit neighbors. A body was found in a
burnt-out building near the east-coast town of Taree, police said, while
another victim was found in a car and a woman died despite medics trying for
several hours to save her.

As hot and windy
weather eased slightly on Saturday, the number of most serious fires fell to
just a handful from an unprecedented 17 on Friday. But within an area spanning
almost 1,000 kilometers, schools were burned and at least 150 homes were
destroyed, while authorities were forced to evacuate detention centers and old
people's homes. It was a narrow escape for Don Russell, with the fire coming
within meters of his home in Taree.

"They've
done a top job, them fellas," Russell told AFP after a crew of six
firefighters brought the blaze under control. His next-door neighbors were not
so lucky, however -- their home went up in flames Saturday afternoon. No one
was home. "It used to be God's country, but it ain't any more," said
another neighbor, 72-year-old Dave Scott. New South Wales's rural fire service
said an emergency warning was in place for four fires among the dozens raging
across the state.

Tinderbox

Bushfires are
common in Australia and a vast corps of firefighters had already been tackling
sporadic blazes for months in the lead-up to the southern hemisphere summer.
But this was a dramatic start to what scientists predict will be a tough fire
season - with climate change and weather cycles contributing to the dangerous
combination of strong winds, high temperatures and dry conditions. "We're
experiencing tinderbox-like conditions across much of the state and all it
takes is one spark to start a fire that may burn for days," said
Queensland's acting fire commissioner Mike Wassing.

Meanwhile, New
South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that next week's weather forecast
"could mean we're not through the worst of it". Morrison, whose
government has played down the threat of climate change, sought to deflect
questions about what impact it may have had. "Australia has been battling
ferocious fires for as long as Australia has been a nation, and well before.
And we will continue to do so," he said.

'Too late to
leave'

Firefighters had
described the conditions Friday as "difficult" and
"dangerous". In some areas, residents were stuck and told to simply
"seek shelter as it is too late to leave". Local radio stopped normal
programming and provided instructions about how to try to survive fires if
trapped at home or in a vehicle. Across the central coast, smoke billowed high
into the sky and residents posted images online of tangerine skies and
storeys-high trees ablaze.

Authorities said
some of the fires were creating their own weather conditions - pyrocumulus
clouds that enveloped entire towns. Despite easing conditions, a prolonged
drought and high aridity levels will continue to make circumstances
combustible. Earlier this month, some of the same fires cloaked Sydney in
hazardous smoke for days. On Saturday it was Brisbane's turn, with the fires
enveloping the city centre in a veil of acrid fog.

Swathes of
Australia have gone months without adequate rainfall, forcing farmers to truck
in water, sell off livestock or leave their land to lie fallow. Jim McLennan of
La Trobe University said the bushfires were "unprecedented", coming
so early in the season and in areas that usually have moist soils and
vegetation. "However, the fire situation is consistent with our new world
of bushfire threat associated with climate change". - AFP