‘We weren’t warned of fire’

Tathra residents Ingrid and Deborah say they received no evacuation warning until they were half an hour out of town.

Deborah Nave (left) and Ingrid Mitchell stand among ruins. Picture: Ray Strange.

Tathra residents Ingrid Mitchell and Deborah Nave say they received no evacuation notifications in Sunday’s fire until they were half an hour out of the town, as the couple this morning viewed the rubble of their family home which has burnt to the ground.

Ms Mitchell and Ms Nave are in the unlucky position to have bought a new house last Wednesday in the nearby NSW town of Kalaru and had an agreed buyer on their three-bedroom Tathra home which has been destroyed.

They decided to buy a bigger four-bedroom home to accomodate their two children, 7-year-old Malakai and 4-year-old Torren.

“We exchanged with our house in Kalaru on Wednesday, and now we have no house to sell,” Ms Mitchell said this morning.

They said the vendor of the Kalaru home was “very supportive” and they were reconsidering their options, which could include building a new home on their Tathra block.

“If we put the effort into rebuilding we would live here for sure because it would be a great chance to build the house you want,” she said.

Deb Nave looks the remains of her Tathra home. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins

The couple say they could have been caught in the hazardous blaze because of bad mobile reception, which they urged Telstra to fix since they moved to the town in 2010.

They did not receive an evacuation warning until they had been out of Tathra for half-an-hour.

They say they had sent petitions to the company about the mobile reception and made continuous complaints.

“No one believes us when we call on the phone (to complain) because it is hard to believe people don’t have reception in our modern day world,” Ms Mitchell said.

“We have been asking for reception to be improved ever since we moved here in 2010, it is appalling, just because it is a small community no one here can get reception, it is just a matter of a boost on the tower.”

The couple managed to save photos and some of the kids’ toys.

“I could see it was coming and we had no information, there was no one was no one driving past, we had no texts but the power had gone out,” Ms Mitchell said.

“I said to my boys ...we’ve got to get in the car and go, grab what you can, I had already grabbed the computer and the hard drive with their baby photos, then Deb came and said ‘grab two toys and a couple of books and we have got to get in the car’.”

Ms Nave said they were trying to turn the tragedy into an “adventure” for their boys.

“We are telling them they will get new toys and new clothes, the seven year old thinks it is great he is saying, ‘it is going to be like Christmas everyday’,” she said.

Ingrid and Deb outside the burnt out remains of their home. Picture: AAP/Dean Lewins

While some locals managed to make it back into Tathra this morning, the town is mostly deserted as authorities think it is unsafe for residents to move back in.

The NSW Rural Fire Service is concerned trees and power lines were still vulnerable to collapsing, while there are also asbestos concerns.

Most displaced locals viewed the town wreckage from a shuttle bus this morning but they were not allowed out of the vehicle. The bus slowly made its way through the beachside town and carried locals who are staying in an evacuation shelter in Bega.

The fire destroyed 69 homes.