Mid-North Coast bushfires: Hundreds of hundreds of property owners give evidence into probe
Police are appealing to the community to come forward with further information regarding damage to their property and land in the wake of the 2019 Mid-North-Coast bushfires. It comes as their investigations into more than eight fires across the Manning-Great Lakes reach their conclusion.
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Mid-North Coast police are appealing to people who suffered property loss from the catastrophic bushfires that ripped through thousands of hectares to come forward and assist with their inquiries.
Close to a year on, and police from Manning-Great Lakes District are still preparing their brief of evidence for the NSW Coroner as part of Strike Force Viridian.
The strike force has been compiling information into what caused eight blazes to tear through the Manning-Great Lakes and leave a path of destruction in their wake.
Detective Chief Inspector Rod Blackman said “several hundreds” of people had already come forward with information regarding their circumstances, and advised people who hadn’t yet done so – to please do.
“If people are in any of those affected fire areas, and haven’t spoken to us, we have a questionnaire that we can send out to them and get it back from,” Inspector Blackman said.
“This information will be vital in getting the tail end of information we need to help the Coroner adequately understand the true scope of the fires.”
“I don’t have the latest contemporary report, but it will be somewhere in the several hundreds of people we’ll have gathered information from.”
Inspector Blackman said the fires in question include; Crowdy Bay/ Bills Crossing Fire, Failford Road Darawank Fire, Goldens Road Forster Fire, Hillville Fire, Minimbah Road Fire, Riley Creek Trail Fire, Rumba Dump Complex Fire and the Thunderbolts Way Bretti Fire.
“People living in these areas will know these names, Inspector Blackman said.
“We don’t want everybody that’s lost a rubbish bin over the last 12 months, but it’s purely that if you’ve lost a shed, property, stock and we haven’t spoken to you, then you’re the people we need to speak with.
“We’ve lost most of the people that have lost homes, we’re now just catching up on the tail end of those people that have lost other property and homes.”
He said from day one, police have been investigating the cause and origin of fires – most of which he believes stemmed from ‘acts of God.’
“A lot of the one’s we can talk about quite openly were that many of the were caused by lightning strike, the old act of god, aided by unfavourable weather conditions and high fuel loads,” he said.
NSW Police is responsible for reporting certain fires to the coroner. Damage to or destruction of property must be reported to your police for the details to be included in a fire report to the coroner.
All investigations into the 2019-20 bushfires that are reported to the coroner will be managed at the Lidcome Forensic Medicine & Coroners Court Complex (FMCCC).
Not every fire will be reported to the coroner.
Anyone wishing to report their circumstances to police, may do so by emailing 23142@police.nsw.gov.au or phoning Manning-Great Lakes Police District on 5594 8299.