NSW bushfires: Green Wattle Creek fire could’ve been stopped two weeks ago
Exhausted front line fire fighters claimed they could have stopped the Green Wattle Creek bushfire over two weeks ago but were pulled off it and locals feel they’ve been “sacrificed”, a senior fire source said. FIRE DANGER MAP
NSW
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Exhausted front line fire fighters last night claimed they could have stopped the Green Wattle Creek bushfire over two weeks ago but were pulled off it.
With the massive fire now bearing down on communities in the Southern Highlands, a senior fire source said locals felt they had been “sacrificed”.
The volunteer with over two decades of firefighting experience said the blaze should have been handled differently by headquarters.
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A community meeting in Balmoral on Tuesday night was told the situation was now “dangerous”.
As RFS bosses warned yesterday that the Green Wattle Creek blaze could join up with the Gospers Mountain megafire, the source said volunteers he trusted had told him they had the blaze under control over two weeks ago when it had only burned through 40ha.
It is now bearing down on Sydney’s drinking water supply in Lake Burragorang at the Warragamba Dam as well as Silverdale, Warragamba, The Oaks, Nattai Village, Oakdale, Belimbla Park, Werombi, Lakeslands, Orangeville, Theresa Park and Brownlow Hill to the east of the fire.
To the south east, Bargo, Balmoral, Hill Top, Yerrinbool, Yanderra, Lakeslands, Thirlmere, Couridjah and Buxton are in its path.
The volunteer firefighter said over two weeks ago, the crews on the ground believed they could extinguish the Green Wattle Creek fire but were pulled off by management who believed it was too dangerous.
“The senior fire fighters like those guys are used to going into these locations, they are used to putting themselves on the line,” he said.
“They (the firefighters) didn’t think it was too dangerous. They told me they had it pretty well rounded up but they were told to leave.”
A week ago, two back burning operations which would have slowed the blaze outside Balmoral went wrong because they were set in the wrong places with instructions from RFS headquarters and joined up with the Green Wattle Creek fire, the source said.