NSW floods: Macarthur firefighters coordinates two rescues from social media messages

Two families trapped by rising floodwaters in northern NSW homes have been rescued after desperate messages to Sydney-based Fire and Rescue Facebook pages.

A mother and two young sons trapped by rising floodwaters inside a South Lismore home have been rescued, in one of two incidents where fire crew from Sydney’s southwest stepped up to help.

The family was seeking refuge from the flood when the realisation dawned about 10am on Monday that it was too dangerous to get on the slippery roof of their Edward St home and wait for help.

With no mobile signal and losing hope, the woman used internet access on her phone to send a distress message to a family friend living overseas as they considered sheltering in the roof cavity.

The friend then randomly sought help via Sydney’s Narellan Fire Station Facebook page, writing a message: “Please small child in house TRAPPED GET HELP OUT THERE NOW PLEASE.”

An off-duty FRNSW firefighter, returning home after a north coast holiday with her own family, received the messenger alert on her phone.

A former fire station social media administrator, the qualified firefighter responded to the man’s message and rang triple-0 providing the trapped family’s details and guiding first responders to the address where the trio was rescued.

The Land Rover LifeFlight Special Mission helicopter carried out numerous winches and flood rescues in Lismore on Monday morning. Picture Landrover Lifeflight

The family friend received news of the rescue and sent a follow-up message to the firefighter saying “daughter just made contact … they got them out … Thank you so much, guys/girls … God bless you”.

Then, another southwest Sydney FRNSW Facebook page was called on to save lives during the floods.

On Monday night, Fire and Rescue Macarthur‘s Facebook page received a message from a person whose friends were trapped on a roof at Coraki, which is some 750km away.

Eight people, including a child, were trapped by rising water levels and their mobile phone was going flat.

“We certainly always recommend people ring triple-0 when calling for help with triple-0 already having been rung prior to this message,” a statement from FRNSW said.

“A local off duty firefighter received the message and made contact with the communication centre supervisor to ensure the correct information was relayed to rescue crews on the ground.

“Information was relayed back and forward through social media to ensure everyone was updated with the situation.”

On Tuesday morning it was confirmed that everyone was safely rescued after a cold, wet night sheltering on the roof of their house.

FRNSW Act. Superintendent Mathew Sigmund said while there was a fortunate outcome to these emergencies, it is crucial that the public realises that Fire and Rescue NSW Facebook pages are not routinely monitored and should not be relied upon as an alternative to triple-0.