Conditions offer reprieve, new challenge for firefighters

An increase in moisture in the air and rain forecast for Christmas Day is offering a reprieve, but also hampering efforts.

A controlled backburn in Lithgow, NSW. Picture: Jeremy Piper

At least 873 NSW homes have been destroyed this fire season, with teams still assessing properties believed lost in recent days.

The NSW Rural Fire Service on Tuesday confirmed 873 homes and 2048 outbuildings have been razed, while another 353 homes have been damaged.

A further 100 homes are also believed to have been lost since Thursday, but they’re still being assessed due to limited RFS access.

A total of 86 fires were burning throughout the state on Tuesday, including the huge Gospers Mountain blaze northwest of Sydney, the Green Wattle Creek fire southwest of the city and the Currowan bushfire on the South Coast. A watch-and-act alert was issued on Tuesday for the Kerry Ridge bushfire in the Wollemi National Park. It is 116,000 hectares in size and out of control. Meanwhile, more than 2000 firefighters are making crucial preparations before conditions deteriorate again across NSW.

RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said there had been a moderation in conditions, an increase in humidity and moisture in the air which suspended backburning operations from about midnight on Monday.

Rain is forecast for coastal NSW north of Newcastle on Christmas Day, while Sydney will have a 50 per cent chance of rain and a maximum of 26C. Easterly winds will also shift the smoke haze blanketing the city.

“There’s very extensive backburning that’s going on across a number of these key fire grounds, and particularly some backburning that’s very close to properties, including the Blue Mountains region,” Mr Fitzsimmons told Sky News on Tuesday.

Crews were busy establishing these lines on Monday night and would resume backburning as soon as the elevated humidity clears, Mr Fitzsimmons said. Warmer and windier conditions are expected into the weekend and early next week. However the RFS isn’t expecting a repeat of the kind of fire danger levels seen a few days ago, Mr Fitzsimmons said.

“We’re really trying to consolidate as much as we can, secure protection as best we can ahead of what’s expected to be hotter, drier and, this time, a bit more northerly in the winds,” he said.

Conditions have improved for firefighters across the eastern states. Picture: Warren Lynam

Those northerlies would have the potential to drive the Gospers Mountain and Grose Valley fires down towards the townships of the Blue Mountains along the Great Western Highway.

“So there’s a lot of really difficult, challenging, risky work that continues to be going on and will continue to go on over the coming days, right through the Christmas period,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

Long-term weather forecasts do not predict significant rainfall until January or February.

The federal government, meanwhile, has announced Commonwealth public service volunteers will get at least four weeks paid leave to fight bushfires under a plan to get more “boots on the ground”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on big business to follow suit. “What this will mean, as a big employer, on top of what is done by the defence forces and some of the other agencies, is this will enable them to be able to commit more time in their brigades and relieve particularly those in small and regional towns,” Mr Morrison told reporters.

“We’re seeking to be a model employer about how we do this.” Mr Morrison also admitted a longer Australian fire season and overlapping periods of major fire danger for states may require policy change, but said “social media is not going to set government policy”.

“The longer-term planning and the longer-term policies … that’s what you do in the sober light of day post-event,” Mr Morrison said.

Hugs and kind words as PM tours SA fire

She may have lost her home and her farm, but when Helen Glanville met the Prime Minister and the South Australian Premier she felt she had to apologise. Ms Glanville escaped the Adelaide Hills bushfire with little more than the clothes on her back, and while her cattle survived, nothing else can be salvaged.

“I told them I was sorry I didn’t have any make-up on, but that’s because I don’t have any anymore,” she said as Scott Morrison and Steven Marshall visited the Lobethal emergency relief centre in the heart of the fire ground on Tuesday. Ms Glanville returned to her Kenton Valley property on Sunday and described the scene as “heart wrenching”.

“My property is completely black,” she said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison hugs Helen Glanville while visiting the relief centre in Lobethal, South Australia. Picture: AAP

“I designed my own home and now it’s just in pieces.” Mr Morrison responded with words of encouragement and a hug as he urged her and her family to take advantage of support services available.

The PM offered similar support for Adelaide Hills winemaker Jan Siemelink-Allen. While her buildings, including her cellar survived, she lost all 10-hectares of vines.

She said after living through the experience of a disastrous bushfire, she now understood why it was so hard for some people to just leave. “I understand that incredible pull that you have to go back,” she told Mr Morrison while holding back tears.

“It’s so heartbreaking.

“When we first came back here all I could think was I should have stayed, or I should have stayed longer or I should have done something differently.

“But I don’t know what else we could have done.”

The Adelaide Hills fire continues to burn uncontrolled after blackening 25,000 hectares since it was sparked in catastrophic conditions on Friday. So far 84 homes have been confirmed lost along with about 500 other buildings and hundreds of vehicles.

Agriculture losses worth millions of dollars are also expected with an estimated 1100 hectares of vines destroyed and losses to pear and cherry crops.

AAP