This is neither of those, it's the Sony Ericson Xperia Play, which was a phone with slide out PlayStation controls

Early is any time before the evacuation is called, which is the case here.
Australia has fire danger ratings which cover the chance of fire.
Even catastrophic is before a fire has started. Once a fire starts, official evacuation orders are given to those in affected areas.

It was actually the letter Þ (thorn) not y, but with the invention of the printing press, y was used in place of Þ, and so we get "ye olde"