Australians have woken on the first day of 2020 to even more devastating news about yesterday’s bush fires throughout Victoria and NSW. The stories of how many Australians in fire-stricken areas couldn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve because they were coping with this extreme emergency situation are everywhere.
With hundreds of houses destroyed in both NSW and Victoria yesterday, the number of people killed by the 2019 season of bush fires across all states has now reached 11 and this looks set to rise further in 2020 with a number of people currently missing.
The NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said these bush fires have been the worst fires NSW has on record and he warned the reality of the damage would become clear only once the fires were under control.
His words have rung true as we wake up today and find many hundreds of homes and businesses have been lost and the toll of those dead and injured keeps rising.
Worldwide attention
These Australian bush fires are attracting attention worldwide and a European satellite image taken late yesterday (seen above) shows the shocking scale of the fires in the Batemans Bay area on the NSW South Coast, as seen from space.
What can you do to help?
You may be wanting to know how you can help in this extreme situation. If you go to the NSW Rural Fire Service website here they outline how you can help by donating money.
The NSW RFS says: “There are a number of ways you can help.”
The RFS site goes on to say one of the best ways is to donate money: “This allows people to buy the things they need, and it supports local businesses which have also been impacted.”
There are a number of funds which have been established to support those affected by the bush fires. These include:
- Australian Red Cross Disaster Recovery and Relief
- Salvation Army Disaster Appeal
- St Vincent de Paul Society Bushfire Appeal (NSW)
Or you can support the RFS volunteers
If you choose to support the RFS volunteers, you can donate directly to them here:
Any help will be greatly appreciated we’re sure because Australians everywhere are concerned and wanting to support those affected by the fires and those working to control them.
