Water supplies drying up as bushfire continues to monster Huon Valley communities
Geeveston has nearly run out of water as the massive Huon Valley bushfire pushes closer to the town than ever before.
Tasmania
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GEEVESTON has nearly run out of water as the massive Huon Valley bushfire pushes closer to the town than ever before.
Glendevie, about 10km south of Geeveston, and the Huon Highway has become the major concern for firefighters today, with strong south-westerly winds expected to hit the area.
Spot fires were located yesterday only 2km from Glendevie as the fierce blaze was pushed
towards Dover.
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Taskforce leader Bill Coad said rain was forecast for today, but he remained pessimistic about its impact.
“The concern is there will be strong winds, so we need significant rain to counteract that,” he said.
“The wind is going to swing to the southwest so it’s going to put more pressure on Glendevie and the Huon Highway.”
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District officer Andrew McGuiness said only significant rain would stop the fires from getting bigger and bigger.
As firefighters are pushed to the limit, the town’s water supply has reached a critically low level.
“Geeveston’s water supply is nearly depleted,” Mr Coad said.
“Tankers are going to have to be brought in to supply water for the firefighters.
“If people can conserve water, please do it so it can assist us with our firefighting efforts.”
TasWater incident controller Mark McConnon said Geeveston was using three times more water than usual.
“At the moment they are taking more water than we can actually push down to them,” he said.
“There is every possibility that when firefighters do tap into the mains to take water out, there may be limited supply there.
“Some higher areas where the pressure has been reduced they may not have water.”
He said Huon Valley residents should limit non-essential water usage such as washing cars and using sprinklers.
Spot fires placed the 21 fire crews based at Geeveston under significant pressure late yesterday afternoon with flames lapping at the doors of a number of homes about 3km west on Arve Rd, the closest the blaze has been to the town centre.
Mr Coad said a number of structure were impacted, but there was no damage or losses.
He said the spots had been contained but crews would continue to patrol “a bit of live fire” in the area to ensure there were no flare ups.
A shed was significantly damaged on Kermandie River Rd and shipping container on Braeside Rd on Tuesday night bringing the number of structures lost in the Huon Valley fire to ten.
No houses or structures were compromised in the Geeveston area yesterday.
Mr Coad said conditions weren’t as bad as expected which helped firefighters put in containment lines and protect assets.
“It still peaked at what was expected, but the duration of the bad weather wasn’t as long as what I thought, so that was really good for us,” he said.
It comes as one Geeveston resident wants the fire to come through so the threat can be over.
David “Chunky” Reynolds, who lives on Arve Rd about 400m from yesterday’s spot fire, said he had been waiting for the fire to hit for a week.
“I’m pretty much sick of waiting,” he said.
“I kind of hope it's coming today, get it over and done with one way or another.
“I can’t see my young fella because I can’t have him down here when it’s like this.
“Everyone rings up and asks how you are and say you should get out, and I say it's not too bad, then I go to bed and do it all again the next day.”
He said yesterday was the most imminent the threat had looked.
He said he would stay and defend his property with 400 litres in a tank on the back of his ute.
“I’m not a fireman, but I reckon I could put it out,” he said.
“It's got to come downhill to us whichever angle you look at, which means the fire moves slower.”
“Chunky” experienced a hairy Tuesday night after spotting three embers fall in his yard.
“That was the first orange I’d seen,” he said.
“It worried me enough to stay up all night just in case, but I haven’t seen any since.”
Locals also said they were worried food supplies would run short because of the Huon Highway road closure at Franklin.
jack.paynter@news.com.au
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