Australia Fire Updates: Bracing for an Even Worse Weekend – The New York Times, The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia – Already besieged by (one of the worst wildfire seasons) in Australian history, evacuees and those staying put on Friday braced for conditions to grow even more dire.Across Australia’s southeast, supermarket shelves emptied, gas stations closed and roads became clogged with traffic as skies turned a hellish red or a smoke-choked white ********************************. Firefighters were overwhelmed by more than 100 raging blazes and families were forced to make perilous stay-or-go decisions.

The toll so far includes************************************************************************** deaths, more than 1, 0 homes destroyed and thousands of animals killed. On Friday, experts and government officials offered a grim warning: The upcoming weekend is likely to be the most dangerous yet.

Predictions for SaturdayEarly Friday, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service dramatically expanded its estimate of the amount of land at risk from spreading fires, including “ember attacks,” in which burning wood fragments are carried by wind. The weekend is expected to bring high winds and temperatures over degrees Fahrenheit, or about 60 Celsius.

New South Wales, the state that includes Sydney, declared a state of emergency in its southeastern region on Thursday. Residents and tourists across a broad swath of the southeastwere advised to flee

.

The Royal Australian Navy began rescuing people trapped in Mallacoota, a seaside town in Victoria, after fires cut off its land-based escape routes. The Department of Defensesaid on Friday

afternoon that 75 People had departed on one of its ships, and about would leave throughout the day.