Blazes rage all around Batlow, pub stays open, residents stay to defend homes against ‘firestorm’
A firefighter has filmed the terrifying scenes in Batlow, in the state’s southwest, with fires raging all around and homes bursting into flames. SEE THE VIDEO.
NSW
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The entire town of Batlow in the state’s southwest has been cloaked in a thick haze as fires rage all around it and houses have been lost.
Firefighters driving around the town in trucks have scrambled to save homes and put out multiple structure and grass fires as explosions were heard.
At the local RSL a group of five men gathered next to their cars with water tanks and spray guns ready to defend themselves against the flames.
“Five generations of my family have lived in this town for 100 years, I’m not going anywhere,” Rob Ironside said.
“I’ll be looking forward to a beer after all this, I can tell you that.”
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The 51-year-old father said the loud bangs were gas bottles exploding at an old service station that was well alight, and a nearby abandoned can factory was also on fire.
Mr Ironside said he sent his wife and kids to the nearby township of Tumut two days ago and stayed behind with his 26-year-old son and 81-year-old dad.
“You’ve just got to have a good plan, be well prepared, and when it all goes pear-shaped have an escape route to here, which is exactly what we’ve done. So far, so good,” he said.
Mr Ironside and his group wore jeans, tradesmen work shirts and sunglasses with gas marks, while one man simply held a towel to his face among the smoke.
“I told them, ‘if it gets ugly, come down here’,” he said.
The local pub of a town in the state’s south west in the direct path of a “firestorm” has stayed open despite firefighters giving up trying to battle it.
The Rural Fire Service has ordered all Batlow residents to evacuate, fearing two large uncontrollable blazes in the area could merge.
“When that happens it creates its own lightning, wind, it’s own weather system, which then propels the fire even faster and it runs in different directions,” RFS Riverina Zone operational officer Bradley Stewart told The Sunday Telegraph on Saturday.
“This fire under today’s conditions cannot be fought safely. We would put firefighters well and truly in harm’s way. It’d run the serious risk of most certainly injuring and possibly killing them.”
Locals and tourists in the iconic Kosciuszko National Park were ordered to urgently leave the area on Thursday but a few hundred, including Batlow Hotel owners Linda and Mathew Rudd, have remained.
The sky had turned orange as thick plumes of smoke surrounded the 1300-person town known as Australia’s apple capital, and Mr Rudd lamented they’d nearly ran out of beer.
“We’ve still got some Batlow cider on tap,” he joked.
The couple decided to use the pub as a central hub to distribute information to those deciding to stay and defend their properties and to provide food and fresh bottled water.
“We did 40 meals last night. There are a lot of people still in town and there’s no shops open and we had a bit of stock,” Mr Rudd said.
“The town water is orange, it’s undrinkable. They’ve pumped all the water dry out of the reservoir, it’s that low now.”
After moving from Sydney two years ago, Mr Rudd said they’ve “fallen in love with the community here”.
“I’d like to stay and defend it but it’ll be up to the wife and when she wants to go,” he said.
“We’re hoping we’ll be back tomorrow afternoon to open up again,” Mrs Rudd said, nodding.
Retirees Margaret and Roly Isselmann are planning to stay in a vault underneath their red brick home should the blaze descend.
“We’ve got some safe space underneath. We’ll just go in there and wait for the fire to go and bunker down,” she said.
The grandmother had sprinklers running in their front yard to protect against spot fires while her husband tinkered away in the shed making pens as a hobby.
“You reckon you could be more relaxed than Roly? He’s making pens!” Mrs Isselmann called out to a neighbour driving past.
Sirens could be heard as water bomber planes flying overhead dumped water nearby while burnt leaves and ash rained down.
The couple have lived in Batlow for 17 years and Mrs Isselmann said she wasn’t feeling nervous.
“I’ve seen pictures of the devastation of homes on the south coast and that’s very sad, but we’ll just cope,” she said.
A local named Stephen, wearing footy shorts and thongs, drank a beer as he watched smoke surround the historic township.
“I’m 54 years old, I’ve worked hard all my life to build my home, I’m going to defend it,” he said.
The temperature in the Snowy Mountains is expected to reach 40C on Saturday and the largest fire spread is expected in this region with potential ember attacks from the Snowy River to Tumut and Borambola to Adaminaby.
The 140,000-hectare Dunns Road blaze has descended on Batlow and surrounding areas and a predicted south westerly wind change could push it towards the 127,000-ha Green Valley fire which is burning east of Albury.
The Rural Fire Service has warned people threatened by the Green Valley fire not to leave into Victoria as all access roads are closed.
More than 300 people from the region have taken refuge at an evacuation centre in Wagga Wagga that has been overwhelmed by donations with food and other supplies flooding in.
The nearby Wagga Showgrounds is also hosting people taking shelter with their dogs, cats, horses, poultry or “small mobs of sheep.”
It comes amid a two-day statewide total fire ban and a week-long state of emergency marred by deaths and a mass exodus of thousands of people from Batemans Bay to the Victorian border.
RFS Riverina Zone operational officer Bradley Stewart said the Dunn’s Road Fire could continue for six weeks, with the fire season which began in August not tipped to end until March or April.
“We’re going to need 200-300 millilitres of rain to bring this fire to a successful resolution, which isn’t predicted for some time,” he said.
Mr Stewart said most residents had evacuated the surrounding townships including Tumbarumba, where the water supply dropped to 15 per cent overnight as panicked people hosed down their homes.
“There have been unconfirmed reports of residents, who are understandably concerned and scared, that they’ve turned their sprinklers on at these properties and they’ve vacated the area to Wagga,” he said.
The RFS set up a special task force with an excavator to dig out a nearby creek and create a “beaver dam” holding additional water, and will pump up to 3,000 litres of water to protect the community.
Mr Stewart said firefighters have deployed significant resources to defend a $500 million timber mill which he said was a big employer in Tumbarumba.
“It has a huge amount of economic value to that community,” he said,
“When the locals come back, hopefully they still have a business to work in and meaningful employment and therefore a source of income.”
Mr Stewart warned that if the fires hit a power station which provides electricity to South Australia and Victoria there could be dire consequences.