the princes highway is closed between genoa and bairnsdale. princes highway. there are many traffic management plans in place today. and i know some people will be trying to move around that particular part of the state, but i ask you, i encourage you to just pay attention to what is happening in relation to those traffic management points. they are therefore a good reason, they are therefore a good reason, they are there to keep you safe. if you given particular instructions, please listen to whatever the police member, the ses member or whoever it is, what they are saying to you. it is, what they are saying to you. it is for your safety. so with those highway, the highway being cut, we have a number of community is actually isolated. again, this was a scenario we forecast a number of days ago. our scenario we forecast a number of days ago. 0urfocus scenario we forecast a number of days ago. our focus today is very much about how we can get in, how we can support those impacted communities. so we are moving some extra helicopters down into th

john white is the mayor of east gippsland, and hejoins us from bairnsdale.ifficult time for your area. can you tell us about the people stranded on mallacoota beach? what has happened is mallacoota has only one road in and one rode out to reach the princes highway and two days ago it was told it was too late for them to leave so they needed to remain in their township, which is on the beach. and at this stage that's where they stay and at the moment they are still under threat, but they are not fully impacted. what is the situation in east gippsland generally? it's quite a large portion of victoria. how many fires are you fighting? what's actually happened is there are two main fires that we are fighting, but there were lots of smaller fires that have joined up and this is one of the largest fires we have ever seen. of the largest fires we have ever seen. it almost spreads the full length of our shire, which is around 300 kilometres, the length of our shire. and they impacted private land yesterday with a catastrophic effects, because the weather was in the

500 kilometre stretch spanning two australian states — from batemans bay in new south wales to bairnsdaletions. this footage from st george's basin in new south wales is typical of many images shared across social media of blood—red, smoke—filled skies. 0ur correspondent shaima khalil reports. this is what uncontrollable blazes pushed by strong winds have done to towns across eastern australia. and this is what firefighters have been up against for weeks now. this crew trapped in their fire engine as they fight an impossible battle. in the coastal town of batemans bay in new south wales, residents have fled, taking shelter on the beach, desperately trying to escape the hellish fire conditions. 300 kilometres south in the state of victoria, thousands in mallacoota also escaped to the shores. at one point, people were told to jump in the water if the fire came their way. more than a dozen emergency level blazes, spanning 500 kilometres, have stretched across the two states of victoria and new south wales. several holiday spots along the coast have now been cut off and the main road in the r

so whether you look from bairnsdale, you look right through to mallacoota, we've had impacts across thest gippsland. just an date there —— not an update therefrom authorities. —— an update therefrom authorities. —— an update therefrom authorities. david jeffery is the owner of the wave 0asis b&b in mallacoota and hejoins us now. right now, we are down on the foreshore before the inlet and this is where everyone is gathering, but we we re is where everyone is gathering, but we were not like this before. we we re we were not like this before. we were actually all terrified for our lives. we were just below the rock wall and that was where we were going tojump into the wall and that was where we were going to jump into the water if it hits, which thank god it didn't, which was due to a lot of events, due to mainly wind and a lot of prayer. we were praying like crazy. we certainly had some answers to the prayer. it sounds like a terrifying situation. we have seen some pictures on social media of the red skies from those fires. right now what is the direction of the fire? what is your situat

abby denham is in bairnsdale west of melbourne she says it's an anxious wait for those who fled their properties. this is a relief center which is 3 hours east of melbourne fires continue to burn further east of where we're standing we've had confirmation this morning that homes have been lost at least 20 minutes just up the road there are reports that houses have been raised from the bushfires that have come down just in the last 24 hours with no numbers yet of how many houses livestock has been lost at this stage they've also confirmed that 4 people remain unaccounted for at this stage there are emergency warnings ongoing for this region at the moment one in my town that's in the far east they've been frightening videos emerging this morning on social media thousands of people at the foreshore trying to get away from the fire see if i had set up a boundary in between the people and the fire front that seemed to be looming all around them they saying about 4000 people trapped at this stage there on able to leave the highway has been cut off for some time from that region and now thei

abc's nicola asher bairnsdale is there for us. essentially, what is going on?e are hot winds and there area and there are hot winds and there are a lot of bushfires. authorities are a lot of bushfires. authorities are most concerned that, with these strong winds, they will push bushfires into communities and they just cannot control them at the moment. they have evacuated thousands of people. this is a popular holiday spot, there are fireworks down here and there are beaches and normally it is a beautiful but at the moment it is just too dangerous and they have sent out text messages to people wanting to get out. not a lot of people on the road. it sounds like people on the road. it sounds like people have bunkered down to avoid the heat but also the danger. ash is flying from the fire and the smoke from two of these fires have travelled 12 kilometres into the air and they have joined together and they are dropping ash and embers in areas that are currently on fires which poses the risk of fire is or spreading further. if people have not left their homes, what

so whether you look from bairnsdale, you look right through to mallacoota, we've had impacts across thehole of east gippsland. that was the situation a few hours ago. david jeffery is the owner of wave 0asis b&b in mallacoota and is one of those stranded on the foreshore. he told us what's been happening. we are down on the foreshore camp park beside the inlet and this is where everyone is gathering, i willjust pan around, but we were not like this before. we were actually all terrified for our lives. we were right beside the loader here. we were just below the rock wall and that was where we were going to jump into the water if the heat had hit, which thank god it didn't, which was due to a lot of events, due to mainly wind and a lot of prayer. we were praying like crazy. we certainly had some answers to the prayer. it sounds like a terrifying situation. we've seen some pictures on social media ofjust red skies from those fires. but right now, what is the direction of the fire? what is your situation? yeah, well... 0oh, bang! big hit. that was a gas cylinder exploding, i would say that