Australia: New South Wales declares week-long emergency as bushfire continues to spread across

The leader of Australia’s eastern New South Wales (NSW) state has declared a week-long state of emergency in response to the escalating bushfire threat. High temperatures and strong winds are forecast for the weekend, leading to “widespread extreme fire danger”. The state of emergency in NSW will kick in at 08:00 on Friday (21:00 GMT on Thursday) and last for seven days. It will allow local authorities to carry out forced evacuations, road closures “and anything else we need to do as a state to keep our residents and to keep the property safe. Thousands of people are fleeing a vast “tourist leave zone” in NSW, with supplies running low in some cut-off towns. It’s been called “the largest relocation out of the region ever”. Meanwhile, troops are preparing to evacuate some of the 4,000 people trapped by fires in neighbouring Victoria state. Since September, bushfires have killed 18 people and destroyed more than 1,200 homes across NSW and Victoria.