Adelaide Hills homes destroyed by huge bushfire as CFS heroes battle the elements across the state
We knew it would be a day of catastrophic danger. The reality was even worse – 1200 volunteer firefighters battled heroically against 187 fires around SA. Here’s what unfolded.
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One person died and at least four properties were destroyed in a horror day of extreme weather and catastrophic bushfire conditions across South Australia.
The image below captures the sheer devastation of the Cudlee Creek fire, which tore through the Adelaide Hills and destroyed scores of properties.
Former Country Fire Service volunteer Alverna Ballard, 76, parked her beloved van up the road and watched her Brukunga home of 20 years burn to the ground. “I can’t bring it back,” she said.
The blaze left a high-profile horse-racing figure fighting for life in hospital on Friday night after trying to defend his home.
A day of extreme weather and catastrophic bushfire conditions across South Australia also claimed the life of a driver, who crashed into a tree and sparked a fire at Lameroo.
About 1200 CFS volunteers battled more than 185 blazes across the state.
The Cudlee Creek fire is expected to burn for several days and multiple townships and structures are under threat.
A Woodside property owner was in a critical condition at the Royal Adelaide Hospital last night after trying to save his house and horses.
The Advertiser spoke to a close family friend, who said she was shocked at the news.
“(He’s) renowned for his stubbornness and if anyone is going to pull through it will be him,” the friend said. The man’s family are understood to be at his bedside.
Premier Steven Marshall held a media conference to confirm the death of a driver in a car crash near Lameroo.
The sole occupant of the car crashed into a tree on the Mallee Highway, 7km east of Lameroo, about 2.30pm. CFS crews were called to a fire on the highway at 2.34pm. Police and CFS told The Advertiser that the crash had caused the fire.
“We’ve known this was going to be a tough day for our state for quite some time,” Mr Marshall said.
He also told the media conference at 4pm that there were concerns for a person who was unaccounted for in a fire, which started on Hollands Creek Rd, Cudlee Creek, just after 9.15am.
However, SA Police confirmed at 6.30pm that the elderly resident had been found safe and well. They had been taken by a family member to a local hospital for assessment.
Mr Marshall said the number of properties affected in several fires was unknown but The Advertiser came across at several destroyed homes – many at Cudlee Creek and one at Angle Vale.
The Cudlee Creek fire was the first major blaze to take hold. It had burned more than 17,000ha by 9.30pm yesterday.
Initial reports the fire was sparked when a tree fell on active powerlines could not be confirmed and the cause remained undetermined.
Residents in the outer northern suburbs were forced to evacuate their homes when a fire started near the Northern Expressway at Angle Vale about 11.10am.
The CFS issued further emergency warnings for Maitland on Yorke Peninsula – sparked by dry lightning strikes – Lameroo in the Murray Mallee, Virginia in the outer northern suburbs, Coonalpyn in the upper South-East and Menzies on Kangaroo Island. The fires burning at Cudlee Creek and Menzies were still posing a threat to life and property last night.
Country Fire Service chief officer Mark Jones said four CFS volunteers had sustained burns or smoke inhalation and three trucks were damaged in the Cudlee Creek fire.
He said aerial firefighters who arrived from NSW and Victoria had to be grounded for safety reasons because of strong winds and smoke.
“Once more, catastrophic conditions have challenged the firefighters of South Australia,” Mr Jones said.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to not recognise the risks taken by firefighters and by their emergency partners in responding to this terrible emergency.
“Crews have been working for a long time already, so exhaustion will become an issue. When nature throws its worst, the firefighters, volunteers and emergency responders of this state do their best.”
Adelaide Hills from the air....#adelaide #Adelaidefires #fire #AUSTRALIANBUSHFIRES #CudleeCreek pic.twitter.com/AtIbEWzV7I
— Laura Thomson (@GdayLaura) December 20, 2019
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said three police officers had been affected by smoke inhalation, including one who was taken to hospital, from a shed fire at Old Reynella. Emergency Services Minister Corey Wingard thanked the tireless efforts of volunteer firefighters.
“They are prepared to go out there and protect South Australians at every turn and they have done another outstanding job on this occasion,” Mr Wingard said.
The oppressive conditions followed an uncomfortable night, when the minimum temperature dropped to just 33.6C in Adelaide – a record for its West Tce station.
Cudlee Creek
Wendy Nitschke’s family has survived and thrived in their Lobethal home for the best part of a century.
But it took only a moment for her to make the decision to flee after a wind change brought a terrifying blaze to her front door on Friday.
“It’s devastating, the house had been through Ash Wednesday, it’s been in the family for hundreds of years,” Ms Nitschke said.
“(The fire) is racing down that hill, it’s across the road from my property. The CFS did as much as they could. I’ve got about four heifers … and some old boys, they just can’t run.”
As of tonight, the fate of her home and livestock is unknown.
More than 50 appliances, 100 firefighters and water bombers were, as of late Friday, still fighting the fire that started at Cudlee Creek before spreading to Woodside, Lenswood and Lobethal.
Initial reports the fire was sparked when a tree fell on to active powerlines could not be confirmed and the cause remained undetermined.
Near Lobethal, paramedic Tamara took up a hose to battle flames threatening her home. Ironically, her husband was on his way home from Newcastle, where he has been battling the horrific NSW blazes.
A hay shed on her property caught fire and, within seconds, it was unsalvagable.
The fire stopped short of the house but jumped Cudlee Creek Rd on to a neighbouring property.
“We spent four years putting everything into this place,” she said. “The good thing, at least, is everything’s burnt, it can’t burn again.”
Angus Campbell was sheltered inside his house, capturing the terrifying moment flames came within metres of his front door.
The Woodside resident said he “dodged a bullet” after fire, fanned by strong winds, raced across the paddock of his Bird in Hand Rd property towards his house about 4pm.
In a video posted to his social media account, the 46-year-old real estate agent can be heard saying “Oh hell, oh God, go away, go away” as flames burn his garden.
At one point, howling wind sends embers crashing towards the camera, which Mr Campbell placed against a window.
Speaking to The Advertiser, Mr Campbell said everything but his house on the 24ha property was “up in smoke”.
“There were spot fires everywhere,” he said.
“I’ve never been so scared.”
Mr Campbell said he prepared his house for the approaching fire by putting three sprinklers on his roof, flooding gutters and watering his lawn.
“I know there are a few out there who have lost properties and I’m devastated for them, it’s a Black Christmas,” he said.
The fire front tore through the Lenswood area, destroying large swathes of land, including several apple farms.
Locals and CFS volunteers desperately fought to save many homes from the inferno before they were forced to battle massive spot fires and falling embers.
A CFS truck from Seaford was destroyed and abandoned on the southeastern edge of the town. Fruit orchards were left blackened, scores of tree branches downed and animals under threat.
Evelyn Pearse, 39 and husband Vince, 42, battled to save their homestead on Lenswood’s outskirts with CFS volunteers, friends and family.
After evacuating their two young children to a neighbour’s house, Ms Pearse returned to fight the blaze.
The front initially avoided their home before a wind change brought it back to their doorstep.
“We have lost a couple of sheds and more than 1000 hours of gardening but thankfully the house was saved and is okay,” she said as she hosed down embers.
“It seems it is a good thing we have lots of lawn as that helped us. But at least we still have our house. I can’t actually go down to the sheds yet to see what damage was done
Lameroo
A driver died after hitting a tree near Lameroo at the start of a tough day for the Murray Mallee town, which was then threatened by an out-of-control fire.
The victim was the only occupant of the vehicle.
The crash happened out the front of retired stock agent Patrick Larsson’s property.
Mr Larsson, 65, who lives half way between Lameroo and Parilla on the Mallee Highway, said he saw smoke billowing from the crash about 2.30pm.
“I rang triple-0 but I’d been told they’d already been notified and help was on the way,” he said. “The car was in flames and no one could get near it.”
Quick action from Mr Larsson, who has his own firefighting unit, helped keep the blaze under control and damage to a minimum on his farm.
Luckily, the fire only burnt through about 5ha of crop stubble on his property.
“I got on to it pretty quickly,” he said.
In the evening, while small fires were still being mopped up on his property, Mr Larsson said heavy showers had just started to fall, bringing about 4mm of rain and relieving conditions.
The Lameroo crash means the number of lives lost on the state’s roads is now 106, compared to 74 at the same time last year.
— Paula Thompson
Angle Vale
Dozens of residents sought refuge at an evacuation centre in Gawler after a fire destroyed a house and ravaged 43ha at Angle Vale.
Multiple CFS crews battled the Angle Vale fire which flared up at 11am and burnt out-of-control for several hours. It was contained at 5.30pm.
A Hillier Rd house, shed and cars were destroyed in the inferno which swept through in a south-easterly direction towards Munno Para Downs. More than 50 residents and their pets – the bulk of them from the Hillier Park Residential Village – were still waiting to return home.
They had been evacuated earlier in the day to the Gawler Sport and Recreation Centre, on Nixon Tce.
The fire also forced residents to rescue their horses as it swept across the suburb, many being taken to Magic Millions complex at the Morphettville Racecourse.
The fire, the cause of which is unknown, jumped Hillier Rd and raced along Karbeethon Reserve, before being contained.
At 3.46pm, another out-of- control fire started burning south-easterly towards Waterloo Corner and the Virginia Gardens Caravan Park, on Port Wakefield Highway.
The Virginia fire was contained at 5.32pm.
— Mitch Mott & Rebecca DiGirolamo
Maitland
Farmers pitched in to battle an out-of-control fire sparked by lightning strikes that threatened the Yorke Peninsula town of Maitland Friday.
Twenty-five residents on the northern edge of the town of 800 were evacuated as the fire raged towards homes.
Emergency warnings were issued to Maitland, Dowlingville, Arthurton and Clinton.
Dozens of farmers joined more than 37 Country Fire Service trucks and six aircraft battling the main blaze.
The fire had burned through more than 80ha of mostly wheat stubble.
Fierce and rapidly changing winds saw the fire front, initially burning south towards Maitland, change direction in the afternoon to the north.
“It came pretty close to the edge of Maitland,” said York Peninsula Council chief executive Andrew Cameron.
He said residents in the line of the fire had been evacuated to the Central York Peninsula Football Club in the heart of Maitland, with some also taking shelter at the nearby council offices.
— Rebecca DiGirolamo