M5 reopens after fire at Voyager Point
The M5 has reopened after it was threatened by a fire which broke out suddenly at Voyager Point, in Sydney’s south-west. Police are investigating whether the out-of-control bushfire which threatened homes in the isolated suburb was deliberately lit.
NSW
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Police are investigating whether a sudden, out-of-control bushfire which is threatening homes in an isolated suburb in Sydney’s southwest was deliberately lit.
The blaze near Orland Crescent in Voyager Point is burning alongside Voyager Park and the area’s community centre.
The Rural Fire Service has issued a watch and act alert, encouraging locals to be on the look out for embers blowing into their properties and creating spot fires.
Several RFS crews are currently working to contain the blaze.
“Fortunately the wind is pushing the fire in a northwesterly direction away from homes but the advice is clearly to monitor the situation and follow the directions of firefighters on the ground,” an RFS spokesman said.
The nearby M5 motorway has been closed between Henry Lawson Drive and Heathcote Rd but has now reopened.
Rural Fire Service tankers from Sutherland Shire were sent to fight the blaze, which was approaching houses and sending billowing clouds of black smoke into the air. Fire and Rescue NSW were also on the scene.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers were making inquiries as to whether the fire, which broke out suddenly, was deliberately lit.
The fire was being fanned by strong winds.
“The fire is burning to the north of Voyager Point, near Orlando Crescent,” RFS advised.
The small suburb, which is a relatively new residential development on land formerly owned by the Australian Defence Force’s Holsworthy Barracks, is home to less than 1500 people.
It is situated on the banks of the Georges River between the similarly small and relatively isolated suburbs of Pleasure Point in Liverpool City and Sandy Point in the Shire.
Nearby suburbs such as Wattle Grove, Holsworthy and Hammondville previously came under siege when fires tore through bushland along Heathcote Rd in April 2018.
Those fires were previously combated by fire trucks and the Woronora River Rural Fire Brigade’s fire boat from the Georges River.
The fire boat is equipped like a regular fire truck and can transport volunteer firefighters and firefighting appliances to small suburbs along the river that cannot be easily accessed by fire trucks on the road.
