NSW bushfires: Two women, one man die in catastrophic blazes
The catastrophic NSW bushfires turned deadly, killing three people who weren’t able to flee the infernos in time. One woman was found dead in her home, another suffered horrific burns before perishing, and a man’s body was discovered in a burnt-out car.
NSW
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She had packed her bags and loaded the car to escape a fast-moving fire bearing down on her home, but Julie Fletcher never made it out alive.
The 63-year-old died in a fire that ripped through the tiny mid north coast town of Johns River, between Port Macquarie and Taree, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
She was one of the three people who have died in the catastrophic bushfires, where one man George Nole was found dead in his burnt-out car, while another woman died in hospital after suffering horrific burns.
“I got a message from her at 9.30pm on Friday night saying she was putting her things in the car and getting ready to go,” Ms Fletcher’s friend and neighbour Diny Khan, 63, said.
“The fire was so intense, it hit quickly and it was hard to tell where it was coming from.
“She obviously never made it out – what a horrible way to go.”
Ms Fletcher was an animal lover, who raised “beautiful” Angus cattle she loved so much she never sold them to slaughter.
“Her cows died old and happy,” Ms Khan said.
“She was just the most incredibly kind and thoughtful lady – what a horrible way to go.”
The Fletchers once owned most of the property around Johns River where they ran dairy cattle and Ms Fletcher lived in the Wharf Road house her father built.
Neighbour Barry Stewart, 62, moved to Johns River 10 years ago and Ms Fletcher showed him the ropes of country living.
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“I wouldn’t say she was a greenie but she loved the land and loved the river,” Mr Stewart said.
“She was outgoing, a top community person and always willing to lend a hand.”
Mr Stewart arrived back to his home at 11am on Saturday to find the fires had miraculously skirted his property aside from a few burned fences.
On Friday night, Vivian Chaplain was at her Wytaliba property just outside of Glen Innes when flames tore through the town.
She called her daughter-in-law, Chrystal Harwood, panicked and asking for her son and his father to help her fight to flames.
“They tried to get down there to see my mother-in-law but no one could get through,” Ms Harwood said through tears on Saturday.
“We called the Rural Fire Service but they couldn’t get through either. We rang a friend who was in Wytaliba and he pushed through the fire to get to her.”
The rescuer found 69-year-old Ms Chaplain unconscious and suffering burns to at least 40 per cent of her body near her shed.
Picking her up, the friend carried Ms Chaplain to his ute and drove through the flames again.
He met RFS crews at the access bridge, which was on fire, into the village.
Ms Harwood said firefighters put Ms Chaplain on a stretcher and carried her on foot to safety.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Tasmanian fire fighters, deployed to NSW to help with the bushfire emergency, performed CPR and first aid on the victim for “several hours”.
She was eventually flown to Concord Hospital and died overnight.
Mrs Harwood paid tribute to her “amazing and strong” mother-in-law, who moved to Wytaliba to live a sustainable life on her “own little piece of land”.
“She was amazingly strong and very stubborn,” she said.
“We all knew she would have stood there with a hose trying to fight it and trying to save the animals.”
Another local, a man, George Nole, was found dead in his burnt out car near Wytaliba on Saturday morning.
Chilling video posted on social media shows homes on fire and scenes of orange and smoke engulfing front yards.
One woman posted of watching the school and bridge burn down while her husband tried to save their elderly neighbour.
“We were escorted to town by police with a convoy of cars behind us,” she wrote on Facebook.
“I am fragile I am processing. My home is gone.”
Many properties in the small, tight-knit community have been destroyed or damaged, including the local school and firefighters are still battling the blaze around it.
“We know people who have walked away from their home and watched it burn,” Mrs Harwood said.
“They have walked away with only the clothes on their backs.
“There are quite a few people who are doing everything they can and putting their lives at risk to save other people and their homes.”
Glen Innes Severn mayor Carol Sparkes lives in Wytaliba and lost her home in the fire.
An evacuation centre has been set up at the Glen Innes Showground for residents affected by the blaze.
* Additional reporting by Brenden Hills
Originally published as NSW bushfires: Two women, one man die in catastrophic blazes