Tasmania’s bushfire emergency is escalating, with an emergency warning issued for Corinna and surrounding areas. Residents in Granville Harbour are being urged to prepare to take shelter as conditions worsen. Overnight, people in Zeehan were told to evacuate or stay put for safety. Reporter Bec Pridham has just arrived in Zeehan with the latest updates.
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00:00It's been a really fast-evolving scenario here in Xi'an just yesterday.
00:09This was an area where people were watching on and seeing what was going and quickly they
00:14were told to leave at about 6 o'clock last night or to seek shelter.
00:18Now a couple of hours later they were able to, that was downgraded to a watch and act
00:24but it wasn't safe to return and now at about 11.30 this morning they were told that they
00:29could return but they had to be really on alert to monitor these conditions.
00:35So I've spoken to some of the members of the community here.
00:38I've been here for roughly 45 minutes and they were telling me that these skies were
00:42just bright orange, it was just fully alight and that once this alert came out, there's
00:49about 700 people that live here, not everyone left but there were cars just out of town
00:54to Queenstown where the evacuation centre is.
00:58So I've chatted to someone who did leave and he was able to sort of feedback some of
01:04that information.
01:05We're unsure roughly how many people did go but here at the moment there isn't really,
01:11doesn't really appear to be a lot of damage to properties.
01:15That person who did leave told me that there was a bit of smoke that had blown through
01:18his house, a bit of ash on his property but that at this stage seems to be the extent
01:23which is pretty good considering these fires got within four kilometres of this town here.
01:28Yeah, it must have been really frightening for them.
01:30I guess in small communities like that, Bec, they all come together during challenging
01:34times like this.
01:37Absolutely, both here in Zeon and the West Coast more broadly.
01:41So one of the hotels here, they opened their doors and said, you know, if you need some
01:46food, if you need some accommodation, if you need a bit of shelter or if you want a beer,
01:52our doors are open for you.
01:54Further down in Queenstown where the evacuation centre is, there were people just from the
01:59community coming and dropping off food, bedding and some people were even saying, opening
02:04their own doors in Queenstown and saying, you can come and stay with us, we'll look
02:09after you, we're safe here.
02:10The West Coast Mayor has gone out and said that West Coasters have big hearts and that
02:15certainly seems to be the case here.
02:18And Bec, am I right in saying that the West Coast is going to get some more firefighters soon?
02:24Yes, that's right.
02:25So earlier today, we were in Tulla.
02:27That's about an hour's drive from here at the moment.
02:30And they're setting up a base camp.
02:32So there'll be tents, there'll be showers, toilets, all sorts of amenities.
02:37That's ready.
02:38That's going to be ready about tomorrow morning.
02:40And then it will start to take on some of the Tasmanian authorities.
02:44And then come Monday, we'll be welcoming about 26 firefighters from the ACT and New South Wales.
02:50Now this camp, as I said, that will be ready tomorrow and once it's at full capacity, we'll
02:55be able to take on about 150 personnel.
02:58So no doubt that really is of comfort to people here in the region because it's an evolving
03:03situation and we're in this for some days, if not weeks.
03:08So this is no doubt of comfort.