NSW bushfires: More homes under threat as Megalong Valley bushfire flares up
A new fire has flared up in a remote bushland area in the Megalong Valley only easily accessible by air.
The Blue Mountains News
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FIRE has flared up in a remote bushland area along Mitchells Creek in the Megalong Valley, threatening to destroy a small property.
“My brother’s (James) property is under real threat; he’s in Canberra,” John Isbister told The Blue Mountains News.
The brothers share a 400-acre parcel of land that is already about a quarter burnt over from bushfire.
Firefighters had been protecting a residential property next-door when Mitchells Creek caught alight.
The fire is burning east of Megalong Rd — currently closed to everyone but residents south of Megalong Valley Rural Fire Service (RFS) — and helicopters are actively water bombing the area.
RFS personnel spotted the blaze on their way to fill a tanker from Mr Isbister’s dam and alerted air teams.
Mr Isbister fears there could be a repeat of the Great Fire of 1905 which devastated the Megalong Valley.
“If that fire escapes up the valley it will threaten Medlow Bath, Blackheath,” Mr Isbister, an active Blackheath Rotarian, told The News.
But he and wife Adrienne are staying put for now.
“We feel safe,” Mrs Isbister said.
Their neighbour’s horses have been evacuated to their paddock where they have a small handful of cattle and calves.
Mr Isbister’s brother’s weekender sits on the boundary of their shared property, and Mitchells Creek flows off the scrubby Fools Paradise area of Narrow Neck into the Megalong Valley straight behind it.
His brother’s old weekender, a mere hundred metres away from the weekender now under threat, has visibly charred posts out front of it from where a fire nearly razed the property four years ago.
“Theoretically this fire could join up with Gospers Mountain in Lithgow, or the other way at Ruined Castle and threaten Leura and Katoomba,” Mr Isbister said.
“That’s the fear.”
An RFS spokeswoman said crews have been conducting backburning in the Megalong Valley today.
Mr Isbister said the Ruined Castle fire “dropped last week into Nellies Glen and since then over the last two or three days it’s burnt out two properties, except for a house, and the back of four properties including mine”.
“It’s really threatening my neighbour’s shack,” Mr Isbister said.
RFS says the fire at Ruined Castle has burnt 8000 hectares and is being controlled.