Tourists evacuate fire-stricken parts of Australia

Thousands of tourists fled Australia’s east coast as authorities braced for worsened fire conditions over the weekend. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared the third state of emergency since the fire season began in September.

What does the response effort involve? On Thursday morning, authorities in New South Wales ordered tourists out of a 155-mile zone along the coast. A group of 39 firefighters from the United States and Canada arrived in the city of Melbourne on Thursday to help. In Victoria, the military and other responders assisted thousands of people who fled the coastal town of Mallacoota for the shore as fires threatened their homes on Tuesday.

Dig deeper: A Sift reader from Australia commented on Tuesday that the fires are “a way of life Down Under.” Read Samantha Gobba’s report in The Sift on the effects of the bushfires.