NSW, Queensland, WA fire emergency: Firestorms threaten to widen path of disaster
Catastrophic conditions forecast for lethally dry tracts of NSW, Queensland and Perth’s suburban surrounds will intensify a deadly disaster.
Catastrophic bushfire conditions forecast for lethally dry tracts of NSW, Queensland and Perth’s suburban surrounds will intensify a disaster that has killed three people, injured dozens and destroyed nearly 200 homes in the worst devastation since Black Saturday in Victoria a decade ago.
The body of Julie Fletcher, 63, was found on Sunday near her blackened home at Johns River outside the NSW mid-north coast town of Taree, as people with severe burns were transferred to hospitals as far away as Sydney.
READ MORE: Live coverage — The latest news on the NSW, Queensland, WA fire emergency | Volunteer gave his all, lost everything | Sydney in ‘catastrophic’ area | Five hours fighting a wall of flame | Insurers to prioritise fire claims | Tears as PM warns of darker days ahead
At ground zero in the northern NSW town of Wytaliba, grandmother Vivian Chaplain, 69, and aged pensioner George Nole were killed while defending their properties against 10m walls of flame. More than half the dazed population was homeless, with at least 45 dwellings burnt out.
Two firefighters were reported to have been injured, one seriously, when a charred tree fell on their truck near Nambucca Heads late on Sunday, adding to the toll of emergency personnel. A Queensland firefighter sustained a broken leg, while others have been treated for burns, smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion.
But Scott Morrison warned that even more dangerous fire conditions were building, and communities from the Shoalhaven region south of Sydney, inland to NSW’s central west and up to Cairns in north Queensland, as well as the West Australian capital, faced severe or emergency-level threats from Tuesday. Victoria will send 50 crewed pump trucks to reinforce NSW firefighters bracing for the onslaught.
The NSW Rural Fire Service said “catastrophic” fire danger was forecast for Tuesday for the greater Sydney and greater Hunter regions, including the Blue Mountains and the central coast.
“We are not out of this yet, there is still a long way to go and Tuesday is looking a lot more difficult and that is not only true in NSW,” the Prime Minister said after meeting evacuees at a shelter in Taree. “We know of similar types of conditions … in Western Australia on Tuesday as well. So while we are seeing a very outstanding state effort here in NSW, there is a co-ordinated effort going across the country in the other places where there is danger.”
Mr Morrison comforted Taree locals who didn’t know if their homes were still standing. Owen Whalan, 85, broke down over fears his Koorainghat property near Taree had been lost.
“No idea, it could be completely gone. I got rid of all of my cattle a couple of weeks ago and I’ve got my working dogs,” Mr Whalan said through tears before being embraced by Mr Morrison.
At least 72 blazes continue to burn across NSW, half of them uncontained, and 42 of Queensland’s 77 local government areas were under fire bans, underlining the scale of the emergency on the eastern seaboard ahead of the predicted deterioration in conditions.
Disaster recovery payments of $1000 for adults and $400 per child aged under 16 would be fast-tracked and people who had lost homes, a family member or been hurt could also claim income assistance, Mr Morrison said.
Echoing Mr Morrison’s concern about the fire outlook in the week ahead, Anthony Albanese said the onset of destructive fires so early in the season was deeply worrying. “This is a very bad omen at this time of year that we are having these devastating fires,” the Opposition Leader said.
Praising communities for coming together to help those in need, he said: “People have reached out, got people out of homes, made sure they have got to safety, looked after each other’s livestock and animals, talking to each other, (and are) putting themselves in harm’s way for each other.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the NSW towns of Port Macquarie and Kempsey would be threatened on Monday by fires advancing from the nearby ranges.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the greater Sydney area would be impacted by the dangerous conditions as temperatures and winds picked up, along with the Hunter, Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions north and south of the city.
“The risk is very real for Tuesday,” Mr Fitzsimmons said. “We have seen the gravity of the situation unfold so profoundly up here on the north coast in the last week or so — you have seen the devastation, you have seen the damage, you’ve seen the destruction. What we can expect is those sort of conditions to prevail across a much broader geographic area as we head into Tuesday.”
In Queensland, 50 outbreaks are taxing resources across more than 800km of fire ground, from the Gold Coast hinterland to the holiday centre of Yeppoon on the state’s central coast. Up to 16 homes and sheds were lost at Cobraball west of Yeppoon, where a fresh emergency was unfolding as The Australian went to press after two firefronts merged, menacing homes in the community of Lake Mary. Residents of Thornton in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, were told it was too late to leave as a bushfire bore down on the town.
This was offset by an easing in the crisis on the Sunshine Coast where 4000 people were evacuated from Tewantin, Cooroibah and Noosa North Shore over the weekend. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, declaring a state of fire emergency for the first time in Queensland history, said extreme danger levels would persist through the week. Fires were burning in places that had never before been affected.
“This has been a big task and, as we know, Queensland does not usually have a fire season like we’ve experienced this year and last year,” she said. “We’ve had a briefing from the Bureau of Meteorology as well and we’re not expecting much rainfall until December and on to next year.”
Firefighters in Perth are bracing for a potentially catastrophic threat levels, fanned by the forecast re-emergence of 40C-plus temperatures and shifting winds responsible for a “fire tornado” that ripped through a pine plantation at Gnangara, north of the city, on Saturday. Two semi-detached homes were damaged and a retirement village evacuated.
An estimated 150 homes have been destroyed in northeast NSW alone, but that is expected to climb as RFS teams access more of the scorched fire ground. However, fears that the death toll would rise eased after five people listed as missing were found on Sunday.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the state that lost 173 lives and 2000 homes in the Black Saturday disaster on February 7, 2009, could not afford to be complacent about bushfire risk. “This season is going to be challenging … it will be long, hot, dry and dangerous,” he said.
The Victorian CFA has issued a total fire ban for the northwest Mallee region. The CFA said conditions on Monday would be see “temperatures reaching the low 30s and winds of up to 35km/h”.
Mr Fitzsimmons said the NSW Rural Fire Service was exploring with its US and Canadian counterparts the possibility of bringing in North American crews over summer, reciprocating support given by Australia. He said the Victorian reinforcements would be sent to help NSW firefighters already in position or pre-deployed to anticipated hotspots. They join crews from Tasmania and New Zealand.
A third converted Boeing 737 waterbomber would be available, having been brought on line last week. But Mr Fitzsimmons cautioned that households had to make their own fire plans and, if necessary, be ready to leave if told to. “No one can guarantee that a fire engine or a firefighter will be at your front door,” he said.
“We simply cannot do it, and you have seen the extraordinary events that we experienced in recent days — never before have we had 17 concurrent emergency-warning fires burning at once, all competing desperately for resources, desperately for support. The reality is we simply couldn’t get to every individual.”
Harrowing stories of loss and survival emerged from Wytaliba, a forest-ringed hamlet east of Glen Innes that was virtually razed by the firestorm that erupted late on Friday. The mayor, Carol Sparks, was co-ordinating relief operations after her own home was destroyed and a relative was hospitalised for injuries he sustained while trying to help Mr Nole save his property, before the popular local was killed in his car.
Ms Chaplain’s daughter-in-law, Chrystal Harwood, said her mother-in-law died while protecting the house and animals she had loved. “She was stuck and we couldn’t get to her,” she said.
More Coverage
Labor’s migration target to be overshot by 100,000
With arrivals outstripping expectations and departures less than anticipated, economists and immigrations experts say Labor will oversee a net migration intake as high as 495,000.
How retail umpire mediated a row while on Ukraine mercy mission
Food Code’s Chris Leptos spends his days arbitrating disputes between suppliers and supermarkets, but after hours he’s part of an international group helping to ease the plight of Ukrainians.