Residents return to their homes after monster bushfire in Edithburgh and Yorkes
Residents are returning to their homes and properties at Edithburgh to survey the damage, as video and pictures emerge of the incredible size of the monster bushfire.
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Residents are returning to their homes and properties on the lower Yorke Peninsula to discover destroyed homes and farm machinery, as the CFS declares the fire officially contained.
Road blocks have been lifted and police are still in the area but have been officially released.
CFS incident controller Richard de Groot said firefighters had halted the spread of the enormous blaze that began on Wednesday amid record-breaking heat.
He confirmed the bushfire was started by a fault with electrical infrastructure just outside Yorketown – but did not know exactly where it started, despite reports that it was near the Yorketown water tower.
The fire jumped containment lines about 5am on Thursday, forcing crews to leave the front and focus on protecting the town of Edithburgh, which was evacuated and residents sent to the beach or the local bowling club.
At least 11 homes have been destroyed or damaged and 33 people have minor injures for eye washing, minor burns and smoke inhalation. About 5000ha of land and crops have been destroyed.
At least one 150-year-old home was destroyed in the blaze and farmers have told of battles to save their livestock.
I'm here on the Yorke Peninsula where Graham Hoare’s family home of more than 150 years has been destroyed in the Yorketown fire. @9NewsAdel pic.twitter.com/5ouk58DFXB
— Kate Collins (@KateCollins9) November 21, 2019
Yorke Peninsula electrician Richie Tape, 53, said the blaze came within 100m of Edithburgh homes on Thursday morning.
He said access between Edithburgh and Coobowie, his hometown, about 5km north of the fire, had been closed.
“The fire is basically burning around the western end of (Edithburgh) now,” he said at the time.
“Heading that way is fire trucks, water bombers have started up again and also, I don’t know how many farmers have gone through with water tankers. Just dozens upon dozens.
“But the wind is starting to pick up again, it’s pushing back towards Coobowie.”
Mr Tape said Coobowie residents, expecting to be hit by the blaze, are seeking refuge near the ocean.
“People have packed their cars and they’re in all the parking bays. They’re parked on clifftops and in parking bays overlooking the water,” he said.
Donna Dalton was driving to her home on the outskirts of Yorketown about 5pm on Wednesday when she saw thick smoke plumes.
She and her husband fled immediately and returned a couple hours later to defend their home.
“The backyard was on fire,” she said. “What took us five years was gone in five minutes.”
The Dalton’s yard was razed to the ground but their house of two years stood tall.
Inside the house, every surface was covered in black soot and smelt like smoke.
The couple stayed up all night extinguishing spotfires with a watertank on their truck, their eyes red from flying dust and ash.
As the pair fled, Brett Dalton said he had lost all hope of coming back to his home intact.
He filmed thick black smoke engulfing his home and flames licking his neighbour’s property while he travelled along Old Honiton Rd.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said. “I would’ve been dead if I stayed. I think we are lucky seeing what some people have lost. “Hopefully we don’t have to go through it again.”
Edithburgh local Peter Bartram saw large plumes of smoke and a glow in the distance about 6am.
“I thought, ‘oh s***, I’m getting out of here,” he said.
“So I grabbed my wife, the dog, some things and drove straight down to the pool.”
The 73-year-old watched water bombers getting control of the blaze around 8am.
“The fire didn’t get into town but it got very, very close to the southwest of the town,” he said.
He said he woke up about 1.30am with local temperatures at 35.5C with little wind – but three hours later the gusts had picked up.
The fire came within metres of 40-year-old Adam Hickman’s home in Edithburgh.
“We were told by the police to stay, but we thought, nup, we got time to get away so we got out of here,” he said.
“These guys (the CFS) are amazing, all I wanted to do was come and help, but I haven’t got the training that these guys have got.”
Mr Hickman said it was “heartbreaking” to see local farmers lose crops, machinery and property.
A few kilometres south of Edithburgh, the fire destroyed three tractors and damaged a header early on Thursday morning, causing approximately $600,000 damage. They also lost 20 acres of crop.
A few kilometres out of Edithburgh, the fire caused approximately$600k damage to machinery at the Giles family farm @theTiser pic.twitter.com/TfWmeijvrx
— Gabriel Polychronis (@G_Polychronis) November 21, 2019
Tom Giles, 19, said they couldn’t access the farm while the fire was raging.
“It was just smoke and a wall of fire, so we went out around the back but we didn’t have our water pump and our tyres were flat from the day before fighting fires,” he said.
“When we saw the flames, we didn’t think we would have anything.”
Father Bill Giles, 51, was grateful for CFS crews, especially those who travelled from far-flung locations.
“You see all the trucks and where they’re from around the place as well, some of those trucks have come from a long way away,” he said.
CFS chief officer Mark Jones said about 600 personnel fought 65 fires across the state on Wednesday.