Bushfires: Family breathes easy after Mallacoota misery
Laura Langmead and her family should have been holidaying in the sun. Instead, on Thursday they were among the first to escape the smoke-saturated misery of Mallacoota.
Laura Langmead and her family should have been holidaying in the sun. Instead, on Thursday they were among the first to escape the smoke-saturated misery of Mallacoota when they were loaded onto a boat and ferried into blue water.
Ms Langmead and her husband, Nyall, were in the East Gippsland town with their children Mack, 3, and Evie, 1, when the New Year’s Eve blaze hit, forcing up to 4000 people to take shelter on the beach.
By Thursday, the lingering smoke was having a dramatic effect on Mack and the Melbourne family were evacuated onto a smaller boat and spirited out of the town. “My son was up all night being sick. The smoke is really bad,” Ms Langmead said.
“We are currently out in the ocean. Mack has improved greatly with the help of paramedics.”
On Friday the evacuation of Mallacoota will move into full swing when about 800 passengers are loaded on to HMAS Choules and taken to safety ahead of a return to hot weather and potentially catastrophic fire conditions.
Conditions permitting, Black Hawk helicopters will assist in the evacuation effort.
Further north on the NSW south coast, the evacuation has been by road rather than sea, as authorities urge holidaymakers and residents alike to flee ahead of the weekend’s danger, with temperatures in the 40s forecast.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian bolstered the call on Thursday by declaring a state of emergency, which gives authorities more power to force residents and visitors to leave the danger zone.
Lines of cars blocked roads as the evacuees tried to leave towards Canberra or Sydney, battling fuel shortages and fleeing empty supermarket shelves.
As he waited in a queue of 70 cars at Bermagui, Ayden Morris said he had lost everything when his house was consumed by flames at Cobargo on Tuesday morning.
“We got in the car and drove through it. Another five minutes and I reckon we would have been toast. I couldn’t see the bonnet,” Mr Morris said.
“Mum was distraught.”
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