Australian bushfire death toll rises to 18 as conditions expected to worsen

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For any copyright, please send me a message.  At least eight more people have been killed in catastrophic bushfires in Australia this week, bringing the death toll to 18, according to local reports.  Authorities are warning conditions will only get worse, with temperatures expected to exceed 115 degrees in some part of the country this weekend.  Out-of-control fires have raged for the past two months across Australia’s east coast, destroying at least 900 homes, killing half a billion animals and wiping out 30 percent of the country’s koala population, officials said.  Residents on Wednesday described scenes “like Armageddon” — the massive infernos razing homes, blanketing towns in thick toxic smoke and turning skies to a menacing blood red, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.  Among the dead are a father and son who stayed behind to defend their property, three young firefighters killed in the line of duty and two men who were discovered in burnt-out cars.  Large plumes of ash from the fire have now drifted as far as New Zealand — locals in the city of Queenstown on Tuesday sharing photos on social media of the thick orange haze and noting they could smell the smoke.  Images of trapped Australians wearing face masks and sheltering on beaches on New Years’s Eve went viral around the world this week, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison faced a groundswell of fury over his tepid response to the disaster.  With a heat wave predicted for later this week, authorities issued evacuation orders for large stretches of the New South Wales’ coast normally teeming with holidaymakers over the summer vacation period.  Long queues formed outside supermarkets and gas stations on Wednesday as stranded tourists and residents attempted to stock up on supplies, the Herald reported.  More than 50,000 residents on the New South Wales coast are currently without power while some towns no longer have access to clean drinking water, the report said.  Firefighters have struggled to contain the massive blazes — the worst in decades — with record temperatures and a prolonged drought exacerbating the disaster.

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