After communities across the state’s south coast were struck by fierce blazes on New Year’s Eve, authorities had warned that blistering temperatures and strong gusting winds on Saturday could make for even worse conditions.
They were right.
At least 60 homes have been confirmed destroyed by fires that ripped through NSW on Saturday, though that total is expected to rise once Rural Fire Service crews are able to properly inspect the fire grounds.
It brings the total number of properties destroyed in this state since bushfires gripped more than a month ago to 1,400.
The worst-affected areas on Saturday included Batlow, a small village in the foothills of the state’s Snowy Mountains, where homes were destroyed and a man died of a heart attack while attempting to protect a friend’s property.
In the Southern Highlands, south-west of Sydney, homes were destroyed in Kangaroo Valley and Wingello after embers from the Currowan fire crossed the Shoalhaven River and sparked fires in the dense bushland on the river’s northern banks.
In Victoria, where dozens of blazes continue to burn, 18 communities remain cut off, including Mallacoota, where residents had previously had to be evacuated by the navy after a previous round of fires tore through.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has promised an aid package for areas ravaged by the crisis and said on Sunday he would consider a royal commission into the deadly blazes, which have burned vast areas on the east coast.
In the small fishing and logging town of Eden, near the NSW and Victoria border, hundreds of people huddled at the wharf on Saturday night as a large and uncontained fire driven by gusting southerly winds raced towards the town.
By Sunday morning, conditions remained dire, and police began pleading with people to flee north to the town of Merimbula or west to Bega.
In Merimbula, about 27km north, an evacuation centre has reached capacity and shanty towns have emerged along the water.
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