Residents refusing leave despite as threat of merging fires grows
Only a river separates Victoria’s Corryong fire from two NSW fires but as the “megafire” looms and authorities double down on demands for people to evacuate many residents are refusing to leave. This is why.
VIC News
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Hundreds of Victorians remain in a danger zone with three huge fires threatening to converge.
On Sunday night only a river separated Victoria’s Corryong fire from two NSW fires.
Emergency services said more than half the residents in the likely junction zone were refusing to leave their alpine homes.
Two blazes burning on Sunday across the border in NSW’s Kosciuszko National Park were split only by a single ridge, meaning less than 10km stood between them at the narrowest point.
As authorities doubled down on demands for people to evacuate, distressed residents told them communication needed to improve to convince elderly relatives.
At a packed Tallangatta community meeting last night, Faye Nichols said she desperately wanted her husband Geoff, 78, to leave their Berringama home, which was surrounded by a pine plantation.
The couple fled ahead of last Monday’s fires but Mr Nichols returned, and his distressed wife said a lack of communication meant many people did not understand how much danger they were in.
“I have a husband in there, he will not leave,” Ms Nichols said.
“They are unaware of the seriousness of this because there is no internet, no phone, no power and no one actually telling them what’s happening.
“My big concern is letting him know it is so serious, that I want him out.”
Cooler temperatures and brief showers had no impact on firefighting efforts on Sunday.
A Tintaldra firefighter had to be flown to Wangaratta Base Hospital after suffering burns to his face on Sunday.
Strong winds forced Premier Daniel Andrews to cancel a visit to Tallangatta because it was too dangerous for his helicopter to land.
The worsening conditions brought yet more pain for evacuated Corryong residents when a CFA-guarded convoy organised to take them home had to be cancelled.
Fire control centres in NSW, Gippsland and Victoria’s alpine region consulted heavily on Sunday to consider how they could manage a single major fire if the current complexes linked up.
Prevailing winds and the height of convection columns will determine if and when the three fires converge, but Tallangatta incident controller Leith McKenzie warned the result could be catastrophic for communities across hundreds of thousands of hectares.
Mr McKenzie said more than half of the people living in isolated alpine areas had ignored pleas to leave.
“We have only got a river between us, so those fires, under all types of conditions, are still going to be very active in the landscape,” Mr McKenzie said.
“They will tend to move in, join up and become junction zones, and that is a very dangerous area.
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“For anybody in that area, it is getting up to the stage where it could be really serious for them. We will not put our people at risk to go into these areas to protect assets.”
Towong Shire councillor Aaron Scales, who has owned the Dartmouth Hotel for a decade, elected to defend his property despite more than half the small town evacuating.
“There’s smoke all around us … strong winds are swirling it around (but) I’m absolutely staying here,” he said.