Qld bushfires: Fire fight continues after Wallangarra saved
New fronts are emerging across the latest Queensland region under threat from bushfires, with firefighters declaring today “critical” in their battle to halt the firestorm. LATEST UPDATES
Emergency Services
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Two new fire fronts have emerged on the Southern Downs the day after a small Queenslander border town was saved from the brink of destruction as residents sheltered inside their homes after being told they could die if they fled.
Shock footage showed the fire front just metres from homes in the 600-person township of Wallangarra on Tuesday afternoon, with people driving vehicles away from the huge and fast-moving blaze as it approached.
But in a win for firefighters after an exhausting week – and with a reprieve not expected until at least Thursday – the town was saved from the brink of destruction with help from a waterbombing plane from NSW.
One home was destroyed in the fire, while there others were damaged. Further assessments were being undertaken this morning to inspect the damage.
Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing said their main concern on Wednesday was a fire at Dalveen, 60km north of Wallangarra.
Mr Wassing said there were unconfirmed reports of structure damage in those areas already.
“That fire was very active last night and has a very large run into bushland areas,” Mr Wassing said.
Twenty-two ground crews have been deployed to Dalveen, assisted by water bombers, to contain a large fire that cut the New England Highway on Tuesday evening.
More than a dozen rural fire crews will focus their efforts today on protecting homes along Eukey and Pyramid Road at Wallangarra after a large bushfire moved east from the township into Girraween National Park overnight on Tuesday.
A QFES spokeswoman confirmed the large aerial tanker, deployed from Coffs Harbour, dropped three loads of fire retardant on the fire, helping to protect homes in the border town.
Resources will also be deployed from Tara to the Southern Downs ahead of what has been described as a critical day for the area.
Rural Fire Service regional manager Wayne Waltisbuhl said he was confident the Tara fires were contained so some of the focus would be shifted to the Southern Downs.
“Today we are fortunate quite a large contingent of Victorians are in our region,” he said.
“Now some of them were coming to Tara, we’ve said we don’t need them here we need them more down there.
“So you’ll have three complete strike teams of Victorian firefighters and two incident management teams in to support that as well.
“So we’re looking at really beefing up the resources in southern downs Today. There are four major fires down there. So there’s going to be quite a critical day down there.”
Meanwhile, multiple firefighters had to be rushed to hospital after their truck rolled while battling blazes near the Queensland-New South Wales border.
About 3.23am, a NSW Rural Fire Service tanker rolled on the New England Highway, about 10km south of Jennings.
The crew of four, who were among dozens fighting fires near the border in both states, were working on a fire near Tenterfield when their vehicle rolled.
Both Queensland and New South Wales paramedics attended and assessed four patients with minor injuries.
Three firefighters were taken to Tenterfield Hospital this morning, but have since been released without injury.
The fourth patient declined transport to hospital.
A NSWRFS spokesman said the cause of the rollover was subject to an investigation.
Wallangarra residents were originally told to leave just after 2pm as the fire raced out of control south along the New England Highway, but 16 minutes later were warned their life was in danger, it was unsafe to flee and to seek shelter immediately.
At 5pm, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the town had miraculously been saved with help from NSW.
“The fire is now going around the town,” she announced. “The town has been saved. This is tremendous work. And I also want to thank the New South Wales government because we used their large tanker, their large plane, and that has been of tremendous service.”
Queensland Police Service deputy commissioner Cameron Harsley confirmed there had been no reports of “anyone injured or killed” in the fires at Wallangarra.
He said the Western Downs and Southern Downs had been “effectively fighting bushfires since December last year”.
“That was our last bushfire season that has effectively joined this bushfire season due to the very dry conditions,” he said.
Video footage taken by local Robert Ettery showed chaotic scenes of firefighters working amid billowing smoke to contain a fast-moving blaze as it approached home and vehicles.
“That’s blowing towards the houses, that is moving fast!” Mr Ettery said while recording the video.
“That’s the house there – the fire’s going straight towards it.
“This is the Queensland border guys.”
Wallangarra resident Sheila Beaven said the fire came right up to her Woodlawn St home.
“It was right across the road. It is very smoky now and very windy,” she said.
“The fire came right along the train line and up our street.”
The bushfire also forced the closure of the New England Highway between Wallangarra and Pyramids Rd.
At one point a blaze came worryingly close to Fletcher property owners Vanessa and Harold Smith’s home.
“It’s scary as hell out here for us. There’s a lot of planes flying over and dumping water and all we can hear are sirens,” Mr Smith said.
“It’s worrying, we’ve been here for six years. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
They said they had been keeping an eye on the fire all day, however extremely windy conditions around midday made the situation dire.
Further north, residents of Dalveen, which is 20km outside of Stanthorpe, were told to leave immediately in an emergency warning issued at 3.07pm.
More than 1000 firefighters were fighting in excess of 80 fires in Queensland on Tuesday. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing applauded firefighters for their “amazing” work and said they were “battle hardened” from fighting multiple fires. He said more than 40 aircraft were involved in the fight.
The focus on Tuesday had been fires at Goodwood near Bundaberg, Wallangarra and Tara.
Mr Wassing said crews would monitor the forecast for storms in coming days, checking for any fires which could be started by lightning.
“Last time we got some storms come through we got approximately 10 new fires from the lightning,” he said.
“It’s probably another two days before we get some sort of reprieve because we see some of these conditions, windy conditions that we’ve had today, move into Central Queensland.”
There were multiple other emergency warnings, telling people to leave immediately from parts of Stanthorpe, Kinkuna and Goodwood, Tara, Montrose North, Wieambilla and The Gums on Tuesday.
Others living at Colosseum, Carnarvon Gorge, Buckland, Consuelo, Rewan, Kogan and Obi Obi were told to prepare to leave.
On Tuesday the fires near Tara, which have been burning for weeks, were contained for most of the day.
QFES acting superintendent Cameron Herbert said no further structures had been lost, with the number still 53.
“The crews started quite early to try and get a hold before this weather came in, obviously the wind direction and change came in early,” he said.
Mr Herbert said the firefighters were starting to get fatigued but were looking forward to crews from Victoria arriving on Wednesday.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Laura Boekel said a dry, fresh and gusty south-westerly wind change had moved through the southwest on Tuesday morning before spreading eastwards.
“We’ve seen 61km/h gusts at St George and 54km/h gusts at Wellcamp and Dalby,” she said.
Fire danger ratings are expected to decrease in the coming days, and showers and storms are expected at the weekend in South East Queensland.
During a trip to Dalby, federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt and state Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon announced people “severely” impacted by the bushfires would receive $1000 per adult and $400 per child.
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