Australians urged to evacuate as bushfires continue to rage

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Extreme fire conditions in Victoria, a large state in southwestern Australia, have led officials to advise residents to evacuate.

Citizens along the coast are especially vulnerable with temperatures set to rise over the next several days. Temperatures could reach more than 110ºF (43.33ºC). With extremely dry conditions in many areas, the threat of expanded bushfires is high.

Andrew Crisp, Victoria’s emergency management commissioner, makes the threat posed by the heatwave clear: “We’re expecting a significant increase in fire activity tomorrow. The Premier has extended the State of Disaster for another 48 hours. If you are in fire-affected parts of North East Victoria or East Gippsland, you need to leave these areas while you still can,” he said in a tweet on January 8.

Since the fires started, at least 26 people have died. Some estimates show that up to a billion animals may have been impacted by the fires, with millions potentially dead.

Misinformation and its impact

Earlier this week, the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force announced that legal action was taken against 183 people for bushfire-related offenses since November 2019…