Navy deployed to rescue people from Australia fires

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Tens of thousands of people in southeast Australia were urged to evacuate this week, as soaring temperatures and strong winds raised the risks posed by wildfires.

Over 200 fires are burning across several states in the country. Ten deaths have been confirmed this week alone in the states of Victoria and New South Wales, with at least another 28 people missing.

Australia's navy has started to evacuate people trapped by bushfires on the country's southeastern coast.

According to Statista, the Australian wildfires cover 12 million acres (4,856,227 hectares), dwarfing even California's wildfires of 2018 which covered 2 million acres (809,371 hectares) and last year's fires in the Amazon rainforest that burned 2.2 million acres (890,308 hectares).