How fire-generated storm killed father and son during NSW’s bushfire disaster

A fire-generated storm killed a father and son but somehow missed their farmhouse only 50 metres away from where their bodies were found, an inquest into NSW’s bushfire disaster has heard.

A fire-generated storm killed a father and son but somehow missed their farmhouse only 50 metres away from where their bodies were found, an inquest into NSW’s bushfire disaster has heard.

And an experienced RFS captain has told of how he saw chickens on fire before he found a young family huddled under a blanket in a burning home near the town of Quaama on the state’s south coast in December 2019.

Detective Senior Constable Glenn Bradley, who led an investigation into the south coast blaze after seven people died, told the court Robert Salway, 63, and his son Patrick, 29, were killed when a fire thunderstorm bore down on their property at Wandella.

Robert and Patrick Salway died trying to defend their south coast dairy farm.

Patrick Salway, pictured with his wife Renee, died from extensive burn injuries when a fire-generated storm descended on him and his father.

The police officer said the firestorm was cruelly indiscriminate as the Salway farmhouse — located only about 50 metres from where the pair’s bodies were found — remained unaffected.

“Basically, the fire generates its own thunderstorm activity which generates lightning strikes … it sucks the air up through the fire,” Det Snr Const Bradley said.

RFS group captain Nathan Barden told police he could not keep up with the amount of calls for assistance coming in when flames hit Quaama, according to counsel assisting the inquest Adam Casselden SC.

Nathan Barden says he saw chickens running around on fire before rescuing a family. Picture: Sean Davey

Seven people died during the south coast blaze. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Mr Barden then got a call informing him that a family of seven, including five children, were trapped in a nearby home.

He said he decided to go to the property with fellow firey John Gallagher to rescue them before they were confronted with a scene of chaos.

“The house was on fire, the shed was on fire, there were a number of cars on fire ... the family was under a wet blanket at the end of a hallway,“ Mr Barden said.

“Everything was on fire, I remember seeing the chickens running around on fire … we started to get them out of the house … John was running with two kids and another kid was running on the burning ground, everyone got into the car … we chucked some in the back under a fire blanket and some were under my jacket, we then drove back into town.”

Mr Barden said their plans to combat the blaze were useless because the fire was so extreme around Quaama.

“After seeing what was impacting, I realised that the strategies we had decided upon were not going to work, I had witnessed three heavy tankers and crews nearly get killed … so I realised we didn’t have the resources to deal with such an extreme fire,” he said.

The south coast fire killed seven people, five of whom died on New Year’s Eve.

Ross Rixon, of Cobargo, suffered critical facial burns on that day and died in a Sydney hospital a few weeks later.

Michael Clarke died from burn injuries in Bodalla in January 2020.

The inquest continues.

Originally published as How fire-generated storm killed father and son during NSW’s bushfire disaster