Military sent in over Australian wildfires that have left 17 dead

At least 17 people have died after devastating wildfires in Australia so severe that the military has been sent in. Thousands of people have had to flee to the coast out of fear of the fires ravaging the countryside. The country deployed military ships and aircraft today to take water, food and fuel to towns where supplies were depleted and roads had been cut off. Authorities confirmed three bodies were found at Lake Conjola on the south coast of New South Wales on Wednesday, taking the death toll in the state to 15. More than 175 homes have been destroyed in the region. On Tuesday morning, 4,000 people in the coastal town of Mallacoota fled to the shore as winds pushed a fire towards their homes under a sky darkened by smoke and turned blood-red by flames.

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Mr Crisp said: ‘We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state.’ In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 89 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday’s fires. More than 100 fires were still burning in the state today, though none were at an emergency level. Seven people have died this week, including a volunteer firefighter, a man found in a burnt-out car, and a father and son who died in their house. Firefighting crews took advantage of easing conditions today to restore power to critical infrastructure and conduct some back burning, before conditions were expected to deteriorate on Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return. ‘There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw