Firefighters suffer serious burns after flames overrun crew in Bargo
Two firefighters have been placed in induced comas and three others hospitalised with burn injuries after their crew was engulfed by flames while fighting a fire at Bargo.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Two firefighters were hospitalised in induced comas after their truck was enveloped by flames, and communities were left shattered after a day of “peril” on Thursday — with Saturday expected to be even worse.
As the wall of flames yesterday moved menacingly closer to Sydney, residents in the small Southern Highlands village of Balmoral fled as fire fanned by 100km/h winds engulfed around 20 homes.
One hundred workers at Tahmoor colliery were evacuated as the Green Wattle Creek fire licked the town. Homes were feared lost in Tahmoor and another 20 destroyed at Buxton and Bargo while the Hume Highway was closed for a 60km stretch south of Sydney to Mittagong for most of the afternoon.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said an RFS crew of five was overrun by fire at Bargo. Colleagues fought the flames to administer first aid before paramedics arrived.
Mr Fitzsimmons said two men aged 56 and 36 had suffered serious burns to their faces, bodies and airways and needed to be intubated and placed in induced comas.
They were flown to Concord Hospital’s burns unit.
A female crew member was taken to Liverpool Hospital suffering burns and smoke inhalation and two other volunteers were treated by paramedics at Bargo Showground.
In Buxton, a sharp southerly wind change forced the roaring fire on to the town, trapping RFS captain Jon Russell and his crew from Cottage Point in their vehicle as flames licked at the truck — their hoses melted, their mudguard was destroyed.
A firefighting veteran of 40 years, Mr Russell thought they were doomed.
“As I got out of the driver’s seat they came back screaming ‘get back in the truck get back in the truck’. We stuck hard up against the garage because it was on the only thing I could see. You couldn’t see anything,” he said.
“It was unbelievable the speed that moved at. Of all the days I have been a firefighter today is the only day I thought it would be my last.”
Desperately they radioed for help and were saved when backup crews arrived.
About 2000 firefighters are on the ground and another 500 volunteers are on standby for the worsening conditions. There are 106 fires burning, 53 not yet contained.
Just 80km to the city’s north west, the giant Gospers Mountain fire is bearing down on Mt Wilson, Mt Irvine and Itchenstroke where residents were told it was too late to leave and warned it could get worse overnight as the southerly change blew flames back onto them. In Bilpin, residents were told to seek shelter.
“This is as bad as it gets,” Kerin Lambert, duty commander Fire and Rescue, said as he turned back vehicles outside Balmoral. “Firefighters have performed absolutely courageously in the face of absolute peril.”
The state of emergency declaration allows Mr Fitzsimmons to direct any NSW government agency to conduct or refrain from conducting its functions. It is the second state of emergency declared in the bushfire season. The last, in mid-November, was the first since 2013.