Tathra bushfire: Residents demand to know where warning was as up to 70 homes destroyed
FIREFIGHTERS were forced to go house to house, urging residents of the seaside town of Tathra, on NSW’s far south coast, to evacuate ahead of a huge bushfire because poor phone reception in the area meant most people failed to get any form of text alert as the fast-moving blaze approached.
NSW
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FIREFIGHTERS were forced to go house to house, urging residents of the seaside town of Tathra, on NSW’s far south coast, to evacuate ahead of a huge bushfire because poor phone reception in the area meant most people failed to get any form of text alert as the fast-moving blaze approached.
Tathra has been left devastated after the bushfire ripped through dozens of homes and businesses.
As the fire raged, hundreds of Tathra residents gathered anxiously at an evacuation centre in nearby Bega.
Some had slept in cars on the Bega Showgrounds overnight, while others flocked to the centre after staying with friends and family in neighbouring towns.
They waited anxiously today to find out when they would be allowed home or if their property had been lost, but volunteers were on hand to offer food, accomodation services, counselling and animal housing services.
Some learnt they had lost homes via helicopter footage on television, while others with friends still in town learnt their property had come through unscathed.
Others like Peter and Deb Otton, who live on Bega Street, were uncertain if their home survived but tried to piece together a picture from the reports.
Mr Otton praised the relief efforts yesterday including those of volunteers who went above and beyond - local doctor John Marshman visited the evacuation centre to ensure people had scripts and access to essential medicines.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Gladys Berejiklian arrived this afternoon to speak to residents and offer support.
Toothpaste, clothes, towels, pet food and other essential items were also made available, with both local stores and individuals donating to help out.
Ms Berejiklian said without the “outstanding efforts” of the emergency services, many more homes and possibly lives would have been lost.
“I’m deeply grateful to all the workers and volunteers who made sure nobody lost their lives,” she told reporters in Bega.
As this morning and the next few days will become apparent, many people will be without homes and will be without any belongings.
“I want do again reiterate to them that our thoughts and prayers are with them.
“We will do everything we can to support them.”
It’s now believed more than 70 properties in the community just east of Bega were damaged or destroyed by the blaze on Sunday evening.
The brave actions of fireys and community members saved more than 150 homes which were at risk of being destroyed. About 150 fire fighters battled the blaze overnight which has so far burnt more than 1000 hectares.
Specialist recovery teams are now in position around firefields at Tathra and are waiting to access property to begin the difficult take of putting a dollar figure on so much devastation.
AT A GLANCE
■69 homes and other buildings feared lost
■39 houses damaged
■398 homes saved by the RFS
■ 30 caravans or cabins destroyed
■No reports of lives lost so far
■100 firefighters involved in battle
■300 slept at Bega evacuation centre
No warning
But residents say many of them did not receive an early warning alert via text because of poor reception in the area.
Making the situation worse, a mobile phone tower was destroyed by the blaze and reception remains very poor.
Rob White, owner of Tathra Beach House Apartments and a Tathra Chamber of Commerce committee member, stayed overnight to save his property.
“We survived the night, our guests were evacuated, we’re right on the beachfront so I knew we’d have an easy escape,” he said from inside the evacuation zone.
“We put out a few spot fires and there were fires all around us, it was horrendous.
He said poor mobile reception in the area hampered emergency efforts, forcing fire brigade members to go street to street, ordering people to get out.
“We’ve got terrible mobile coverage in Tathra and (it’s) a lot worse now,” he said.
“We had no communication, even before the fire came through. There were no alert messages.”
Other residents have also complained of the lack of alerts. Several people gathered at the Bega evacuation centre said none of them had received text messages.
They told News Corp there was no phone reception and they believed the local tower had been destroyed by fire.
Another woman who listened to radio all afternoon said there was no information on when to leave.
She and other neighbours went into the street and collectively decided to leave in the late afternoon.
Reception has now been restored to the area after a generator was hooked up to the damaged tower.
Emergency Management Australia director general Mark Crosweller said authorities did the right thing when it came to warnings but “with the benefit of hindsight” the ABC should have possibly been playing alerts non-stop, rather than every 15 minutes.
“But these things move so quick that we get the time to think of them after the event. There’s no time to think about those things when they’re happening,” he said.
“Police did the right thing. They notified people, they went door to door. The residents told residents. The fire service issued warnings.
“This thing moved very quickly. And it spotted upon spotted — it’s close to catastrophic conditions.
“I can’t stress how significant that is given the intensity of this fire.”
Mr Crosweller said the transmission of text alerts could have been impacted by the smoke and the fire. He said fires were more difficult to warn people about than other natural disasters.
“We all know what the weather was doing all day but we didn’t know where the fire was going to start. And once it starts it’s game on,” he said.
“ If it’s a cyclone or flood, plenty of warning, you can see what’s coming and no excuses for not warning. But a fire, you never know where it’s going to start until it hits the ground.”
Up in flames
GRANT Dowdle’s retirement dream went up in flames in Sunday’s Tathra inferno.
But he will deal with that.
What haunts the 49-year-old father-of-three the most is knowing his friends, many of who will arrive back from evacuation centres on Tuesday, are about to discover their own lives are in ruins.
Mr Dowdle’s three-bedroom brick rental with views to the sea was engulfed by fire at 4pm yesterday while he fought to save the town’s small supermarket, owned by his wife.
“When she wanted to sell the shop we were going to move here. It was going to be our retirement home,” he said.
Mr Dowdle, a local builder, said with nearly 70 homes completely destroyed, the town’s commerce would hurt.
“It’s devastating for the whole town. The businesses in this town rely on the people in this town,” he said.
“The caravan down the end of town, it’s gone.
“The bottle shop burnt down a month ago and he was meant to move into Cliff St but that burnt down last night.”
Friends have been calling from nearby evacuation centres, asking for answers.
“They’ve been ringing me asking me to check on their houses and it’s not a real good thing to tell them it’s gone,” he said.
As for whether to rebuild his retirement dream on Francis Hollis Dr in Tathra, he said “we’ll have to see what the boss says”.
Everything lost
Tathra resident Jani Klotz lost almost everything when the fire ripped through her Ocean View Terrace home on Sunday, completely destroying it.
The 52-year-old mother managed to grab a few soft toys for her youngest daughter, the family computer, their passports and one of their cats before she was forced to flee.
“All of a sudden it was on top of the ridge, which is 80m away, and the wind was so ferocious that the next minute, the gully on the side of the house was on fire,” Ms Klotz said.
“We’d been hosing the whole house down, we’d been doing that for a couple of hours. I was inside getting our things out and (my partner) just shouted out to me, ‘run’.
“And he just took off and I ran into the house and grabbed one of the cats ... one of the cats is still missing.”
Ms Klotz, and her daughters Lucy, 14, and Alexandra, 9, have lived in the home for two and a half years and in Tathra for almost 16 years.
The family believe just three houses are left standing on their street but have no official confirmation.
It’s expected they won’t be able to return home until Tuesday.
They say they are angry they did not received an official warning telling them to evacuate.
“There was no mobile coverage. I didn’t receive any mobile alert, other people did,” Ms Klotz said.
“The thing that disappointed me the most was that the local ABC radio was broadcasting the football while we were in a state of emergency.
“We had no contact with the outside world. It was our only possible contact and that was frightening. And we felt abandoned by the services.”
Despite not knowing where she will live for the next few months, Ms Klotz has vowed to rebuild her home in the same location.
“I wouldn’t live anywhere else,” she said.
“Tathra is an amazing community, amazing lifestyle — it’s a really, really beautiful place in terms of the landscape, in terms of the people, in terms of the lifestyle.”
Destruction
Bega Valley mayor Kristy McBain, who attended a briefing with emergency services this morning, said there was still a high fire danger.
“We have the water tanker coming in to drop water and fire retardant on the northern side of the fire ground,” she said.
“It looks like Tathra won’t be able to be accessed by residents until at least tomorrow.
“Essential Energy is on site trying to restore power.”
Cr McBain said the Bega Valley had the highest per capita percentage of volunteer firefighters in NSW.
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“We’ve got a lot of volunteer firefighters. They were going in not knowing how their houses were going. It is truly amazing.”
How it happened
The fire started in the area of Tarraganda, to the southeast of Bega. NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons described the blaze as “awful” with the strong winds acting like a “blowtorch” for the embers.
Fanned by strong winds and high temperatures, it burned through several kilometres of bushland and crossed a river before it reached the picturesque township and coastline.
Commissioner Fitzsimmons confirmed a caravan park was impacted but the damage was not yet known.
He said that there were also reports the primary school was not destroyed as initially indicated. However official advice had not yet come through by 9am. A retirement home could also be damaged.
A woman, aged in her 40s, was taken to hospital last night with singed hair and respiratory issues after breathing in hot air.
But, incredibly, there have been no reported casualties or deaths, Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.
About 300 Tathra residents are at the evacuation centre in Bega waiting to hear when they can go back home.
One woman, who requested to not be identified, said her daughter had lost her house in the blaze when it roared through Ocean View Terrace.
Others said they had heard some houses were left standing while all the homes around them were devastated.
Many have stayed with friends and relatives in neighbouring towns overnight. Others slept in their cars at the evacuation centre.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian will visit the region today for an update on the situation in Tathra and is expected to meet residents at the evacuation centre in Bega.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will also fly in to visit the residents at the centre around 3pm.
The risk level remains high in the area, despite the conditions easing as the fire was brought down to Watch and Act at 11pm.
Commissioner Fitzsimmons said he expected some people would be able to return back home today however they still had the challenge of a firefighting operation at Bega Tathra Rd — the principal access into the township.
“There’s a lot of work going on with trying to contain these fires. Whether that’s to the south west of Tathra or to the northern end of the fire on the western side of the Bega River,” Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.
Yesterday, more than half the state was placed under total fire bans or severe danger conditions.
“Yesterday a fire known as the Reedy Swamp fire started just after lunchtime. It was one of about four or five fires that started in the Bega area,” Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.
“The Reedy Swamp fire took hold and spread very, very quickly about three kilometres east of Bega. There were strong, hot, dry winds headed straight towards the south east. Sadly Tathra was in the epicentre of that fire path.”
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Commissioner Fitzsimmons said that the fire then spread extremely quickly.
It crossed the Bega River and before destroying the dozens of homes in Tathra.
“It burnt into properties along Thompson Dr and I would describe those properties as small acreage holdings,” he said.
The blaze also roared through the western side of the town in places like Wildlife Dr and Sanctuary Pl.
Easing conditions have helped slow the spread of the fire at #Tathra overnight, however the threat remains. Fire currently at Watch & Act. 70+ homes and other buildings are believed to have been destroyed. #NSWRFS #nswfires pic.twitter.com/EN68BpqpjM
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) March 18, 2018
The main fire front was spreading to the east and the embers were landing ahead of the main fire front,” Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.
“It was raining embers. When the embers land, whether on timber fences, gardens or homes, those very strong dry winds had the effect of a blow torch accelerating the ignition of that ember.
“It was raining fire embers right throughout the streets and the community of Tathra.
“Once the homes caught fire the wind was fanning that fire and it would spread to the home next to it.”
He said that the embers were landing out to the water’s edge and starting fires on the sand dunes and spinifex grass.
“It was an awful afternoon for the Tathra community. The losses are going to be very heavy and the early indications driving around last night in the dark the count could be 70 properties or more. There are a lot of specialist teams out in the field this morning assessing what the damage is and what the losses are.”
He said there was also aerial reconnaissance work occurring.
Commissioner Fitzsimmons said he expected parts of the township could return into certain areas later today.
The water chopper trying to put the blaze/s out just moments before we were told to leave the surf club meeting place and leave town altogether #bushfire #Tathra pic.twitter.com/x5Ykpfauot
— Dan Bennett (@DanMBennett) March 18, 2018
However they were contending with asbestos and powerlines so safety was the first priority.
“We’re mindful of the stress to people wanting to get back in but we can’t compromise safety for them,” he said.
“The impact is extraordinary, early reports were there were 700 people displaced and seeking attention at some of the evacuation centres. Something like 200 or more people stayed overnight in evacuation centres.
“You’re talking a massive social impact, devastating to the Tathra community but grateful we’re not talking lives lost.”
Emergency warnings came through at 3.50pm yesterday. At around 10 to 6pm residents were told to take shelter as it was too late to leave.
Once the fire came through it destroyed powerlines and infrastructure.
“The emergency alerts and warnings all went. But once the fire came into the township and impacted the powerlines and infrastructure there was a loss of power on telecommunication towers and sewerage treatment works,” Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.
The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the event a “catastrophe”, meaning claims by those affected by the blaze will be given priority. The worst-affected property owners will be given urgent attention, it said in a statement, adding it was too early to determine the extent of buildings lost or estimate the financial toll.
Temperatures are expected to reach 30C in the Bega region on Tuesday, with light easterly winds in the afternoon.
Interstate
Victoria is also dealing with a bushfire emergency, with similar hot and windy conditions leading to the loss of about a dozen homes and many farm buildings west of Cobden, in the state’s northwest.
Hundreds of beef and dairy cattle have also died in the blazes, which burnt through 40,000 hectares of land.
More than 700 firefighters will today tackle bush and grass blazes in Victoria’s southwest in an attempt to bring them under control after homes and farm buildings were destroyed over the weekend.
Incident controller in Warrnambool Russell Manning said the aim for his team on Monday was to bring the eastern edge of the fires under control with six fire bombing apparatuses and two helicopters to help.
He said a team of 16 vets would also work in the area to assist animals. The Colac Incident Control Centre will keep tackling the fires from Terang, Garvoc to Camperdown with more than 400 personnel helping and 47 vehicles due to respond.