Australia bushfires: Three missing, including child, in Victoria town
Firefighters are urgently searching for three people, including a child, who went missing after the Longwood bushfire swept through a small town in central Victoria, Australia, destroying homes.
The Longwood blaze is one of two major fires currently burning out of control, as firefighters confront the state’s most widespread hazardous bushfire conditions since the Black Summer of 2019–2020, News.Az reports, citing Australian media.
At least 10 homes have been destroyed in Ruffy, a small town located south of Longwood.
“It looks like an atomic bomb has gone off,” local CFA captain George Noye told ABC Radio on Friday morning. “[I’m] just down the main street at the moment, we’ve lost the old school, the old Ruffy produce store is gone, three houses on the main street. We’ve lost countless homes across the area. Ten of my firefighters that I know of have lost homes.”
One firefighter suffered third-degree burns, and the town lost power, Noye said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Hill said CFA officers working in Longwood East, a small town north of Ruffy, encountered three people – an adult male, an adult female and a child – and advised them to take shelter because it was too late to leave.
“Later that afternoon, those CFA representatives reattended that area to see the house that they saw those three people standing in front of had been completely destroyed,” Hill said.
“Those three people remain unaccounted for. Where that house has been destroyed is still a hot spot, and we are yet to be able to put the strike team from the fire services into that area to conduct an assessment for us.
“But what I implore upon people is to actually engage with friends and family and let people know who you are.
“At this point of time, we’re not suggesting for one moment, we’ve seen three people perish. All I’m saying is that these people are unaccounted.”
There are three more bushfires burning in the Wonnangatta area, near the Alpine National Park, that are not under control. Two are burning near Van Dammes Track, and one is burning near Selwyn Track.
Separately, a large fire east of Wodonga continues to burn out of control, sparking evacuation warnings for several nearby towns including Koetong, Walwa, Nariel Valley and surrounds.
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