{"id":6085,"date":"2018-11-28T11:29:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T07:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=6085"},"modified":"2018-11-28T11:29:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T07:29:15","slug":"australia-bushfires-thousands-told-to-flee-catastrophic-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2018\/11\/28\/australia-bushfires-thousands-told-to-flee-catastrophic-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia bushfires: Thousands told to flee &#8216;catastrophic&#8217; threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\"><strong>Thousands of Australians have been told to evacuate their homes as a powerful bushfire threatens properties in Queensland.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It follows the raising of the state&#8217;s fire danger warning to &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; &#8211; the highest level &#8211; for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>More than 130 bushfires are burning across Queensland, fuelled by strong winds, a heatwave and dry vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>The worst threat is for a fast-moving bushfire near the town of Gracemere, said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have never, ever in this state been in this situation before,&#8221; she told reporters late on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have not had a catastrophic level. This is uncharted waters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Several properties have been destroyed since the fires began burning on the weekend. More than 30 schools have been closed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/16FEF\/production\/_104519149_281118_gracemere_976.png\" alt=\"Map\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Authorities ordered people in Gracemere and surrounding areas to evacuate immediately to the nearby city of Rockhampton.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike in Australia&#8217;s drier south, intense fire conditions are unusual in central Queensland in late November because it is the wet season.<\/p>\n<p>Bushfires also damaged neighbouring New South Wales last week. Both states are currently in the grip of drought.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of Australians have been told to evacuate their homes as a powerful bushfire threatens properties in Queensland. It follows the raising of the state&#8217;s fire danger warning to &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; &#8211; the highest level &#8211; for the first time. More than 130 bushfires are burning across Queensland, fuelled by strong winds, a heatwave and dry &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6092,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085\/revisions\/6092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}