A DANGEROUS fire flared up in southeastern Australia on Sunday even as cooler conditions elsewhere allowed authorities to begin assessing the damage from heatwave-spurred blazes that swept through two states Saturday.

Officials told residents and others in the New South Wales 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 state’s Rural Fire Service said in an alert.

Tens of thousands of homes in both New South Wales and Victoria states were without power Sunday as a large-scale military and police effort provided supplies and evacuated thousands of people trapped for days in coastal towns by the fires.

Previously, a southerly wind Saturday night brought lower temperatures, after topping 40 degrees centigrade in many areas Saturday. There was even the prospect of some rain in coastal areas in coming days.

Cooler temperatures and light rain forecast in some coastal areas in coming days could bring some relief, but officials said that would not be enough to bring the nearly 200 fires under control.

Fire officials said the next major flashpoint would come later in the week, but it was too early to gauge the likely severity of the threat.

“The weather activity we’re seeing, the extent and spread of the fires, the speed at which they’re going, the way in which they are attacking communities who have never ever seen fire before is unprecedented,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the national death toll from the current fire season, which began in September, at 23 as of Saturday. Twelve of those are from last week’s fires alone.

Residents used social media to post photos of the sky turning black and red from the smoke and glare of the fires, including in the Victorian town of Mallacoota, where around 1,000 people were evacuated by sea Friday.

The first of those evacuees arrived near Melbourne on Saturday morning after a 20-hour journey by boat, and a second ship with about 1,000 people landed in the afternoon.

Andy Gillham, the incident controller in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale, said the area had avoided the worst of the fires Saturday but stressed this was an exceptional fire season.

“In a normal year, we would start to see the fire season kick off in a big way around early January, and we’re already up towards a million hectares of burnt country. This is a marathon event and we expect to be busy managing these fires for at least the next eight weeks,” he said.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye expressed his sympathies and condolences to the fire victims, and showed his appreciation to the firefighter and emergency services volunteers who devoted their heroic and dedicated efforts to fight the fire. “I believe the Australian people will overcome the current difficulties and prevail over the terrible bushfires at the earliest possible time,” he said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Morrison announced Saturday a historic first for the country: 3,000 army, navy and air force reservists will be thrown into the battle against the fires. He also committed 14 million Australian dollars (US$10 million) to leasing firefighting aircraft from overseas.

But those decisions attracted complaints that he had taken too long to act while fires have burned through millions of hectares in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Morrison told a news conference Sunday it was not the time for blame.

Thousands of firefighters fought to contain the blazes but many continued to burn out of control, threatening to wipe out rural townships and causing almost incalculable damage to property and wildlife. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service said 150 fires were active in the state, 64 of them uncontrolled.

At the same time, smoke from Australia’s bushfires drifting over to New Zealand caused a flood of emergency calls Sunday as people reported a thick orange haze hovering over Auckland.

(Xinhua)