Up to 3,000 military reservists were called up to tackle Australias relentless bushfire crisis on Saturday, as tens of thousands of residents fled their homes amid catastrophic conditions.
Temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and gale-force winds fanned hundreds of fires, many of which are already burning out of control across the country.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the largest military call-up in living memory to assist thousands of volunteer firefighters who have been battling the blazes for months on end.
"Todays decision puts more boots on the ground, puts more planes in the sky, puts more ships at sea," said Morrison, who made the announcement after being pilloried for his response to the deadly disaster.
A state of emergency has been declared across much of Australias heavily populated southeast and more than 100,000 people have been told to leave their homes across three states.
Thousands heeded that call Friday, abandoning summer holidays and piling into cars that clogged the highways linking southeastern coastal towns with the relative safety of Sydney or larger towns.
"In relation to the (worst-case scenario) projections we had this morning, unfortunately they are coming to fruition," New South Wales Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, told reporters.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, added that "strong winds and hot temperatures" were expected to continue into the evening.
Several emergency warnings were issued Saturday, including one blaze southwest of Sydney which is feared could reach the citys outskirts.
Sydney recorded its highest-ever temperature of 48.1 degrees Celsius (118.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the western suburb of Penrith, and the nations capital Canberra hit 42.9 degrees Celsius, also an all-time record, a Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said.
Temperatures in both cities could rise further, he added.
Since late September, more than 20 people have died, more than 1,500 homes have been damaged and an area roughly twice the size of Belgium or Hawaii has been ravaged by fire.
The latest fatalities came on Kangaroo Island -- a tourist haven off the southwest coast of Adelaide -- when two people were trapped in a car overrun by flames.
Fires there have "taken out much of the Flinders-Chase National Park", according to South Australia premier Steven Marshall.
Hellfire came over the hill
Ahead of the coming storm, an eerie calm settled over the smoke-shrouded town of Batemans Bay, a four-hour drive south of Sydney, where supermarkets, shops and the pub were all shuttered.
The only activity in the usually bustling tourist hotspot was at an evacuation centre, where hundreds of locals forced from their homes were sheltering on an open field in tents and caravans.
Mick Cummins, 57, and his wife fled to the evacuation centre when fire ripped through his rural home town on New Years Eve.
"We said this is too tough for us, lets get out. We went to the beach and then hellfire came over the hill," he told AFP.
"I was here in the 94 fires. I thought that was bad. That was just a barbeque" in comparison, he said.
The scale of Australias unprecedented months-long bushfire crisis has shocked not just locals but the world.
In the small town of Mallacoota, the navy was called in to evacuate around 1,000 people who had been trapped by fire and forced to wait for days on the foreshore.
The first of two ships carrying families, pets and a few belongings arrived near Melbourne early Saturday.
Eloise Givney, 26, escaped from the blazes further up the coast with a police escort after she and a large group of family members spent four days isolated without power, phones or the internet.
"The fire came within about 50 meters of us and we drove through fire, because theres only one road in and one road out," she told AFP, adding the flames soared 15 meters (50 feet) high on either side of the road.
"Weve been stuck without power for four days now. We havent been able to feed the kids - weve got five kids with us - and we ran out of food about a day ago."
(Source: AFP)
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