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Australia’s PM to Tourists: Please Visit, Even Though the Country’s on Fire

Scott Morrison urged tourists to visit despite the devastating fires that have reduced large parts of the country to ashes and killed billions of animals.

Australia’s beleaguered Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged foreign tourists to keep visiting despite the deadly wildfires that have reduced large swaths of the continent to ashes. Morrison made his plea Wednesday during a visit to Kangaroo Island, which is usually a popular spot for tourists to see wildlife but has been hit twice in recent weeks by blazes that have killed an estimated 2,500 koala bears. “Australia is open, Australia is still a wonderful place to come and bring your family and enjoy your holidays,” Morrison told reporters. “Even here on Kangaroo Island, where a third of the island has obviously been decimated, two-thirds of it is open and ready for business ... It’s important to keep the local economies vibrant at these times.” Australian ecologists said Tuesday that they believe way more than one billion animals have been killed throughout the country since the wildfires erupted. Officials confirmed another firefighter died in a crash last Friday while on duty, bringing the death toll from the fires and the emergency responses to them to 26.