Australia: Quarter of a million people told to evacuate their homes

Australian authorities have instructed nearly a quarter of a million residents in Victoria to evacuate, as firestorms continue to plague eastern Australia.

On Friday, authorities sent emergency texts to 240,000 people in Victoria to leave their homes and evacuate the area, and urged others in high-risk areas in New South Wales and South Australia to do the same, Reuters reported.

Despite rainfall in some of the affected areas, Victoria premier Daniel Andrews said the “next few hours are going to be very, very challenging,” as some fires continued to spread unchecked towards residential areas.

Andrews urged residents who had received evacuation orders to comply for their own safety.

For more than three months, fires have devastated eastern Australia, killing at least 27 people and forcing mass evacuations.

More than 25.5 million acres of land, an area larger than the size of Ireland and roughly the size of South Korea, has been scorched in the blazes since October.

By the beginning of January, nearly half a billion animals had perished in the fires, according to a report by the University of Sydney