Fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons says he will always remember the impact the state’s dreadful fire season — which led to 25 deaths, including six of his own men — had on him and the people of NSW. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Former Wallaby Al Baxter was fearsome on a rugby field but on New Year’s Eve he joined more than 1000 people in a terrifying fight for life on Malua Bay beach. A whiskey in his beach bag settled his nerves after a frightening day. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Just hours after clarifying resignation rumours and declaring that “it took a bloody big fire for me to realise how wrong politics is in this country”, Bega MP Andrew Constance has made a final call on his future.
For Andrew Constance, daily life is hard. The repercussions of the shock of New Year’s Eve morning are still revealing themselves to the Bega MP who contemplated his fate three times as a fatal inferno roared towards Malua Bay on the NSW south coast. HEAR HIS STORY IN OUR EXCLUSIVE PODCAST
John Smith stayed behind at his farmhouse to move the tools from the shed into the farm house to protect them from the oncoming New Year’s Eve bushfires because he had one day promised them to a son and he never reneged on his word.
A Southern Highlands mayor has changed his stance on slugging bushfire residents with council fees to rebuild their homes after The Daily Telegraph revealed one resident was quoted $10,000.
Friends of farmer Michael Clarke shared a beer together in the ruins of his Bodalla home where he battened down the hatches and hid in his bathroom as a deadly bushfire swept over the remote property.
When Ashley and Bridget Buchanan fled a wall of flames heading towards their home early on New Year’s Eve, they did not realise their son’s and daughter’s houses were also under threat from the fast-moving bushfire. The family of RFS volunteers lost all three.
Ivy Tyrrell has a special army bear to help her understand her dramatic birth amid the heartbreak and destruction on the bushfire-ravaged south coast and how her safe arrival gave so many working on the recovery effort a reason to smile.
A new website has been launched to draw fearful tourists back to bushfire-ravaged towns ready for visitors again after a study revealed just 11 per cent of people were willing to visit.
Historians say the bushfire crisis has redefined what it means to be Australian, changing our identity in a way we will all never forget.
Friends and family of a man who died while protecting his home from a bushfire have described Michael Clarke, 59, as a good man who loved his property in Bodalla. His death pushed the national toll to 33, with 25 of them perishing in NSW alone.
After almost five months fighting some of the worst bushfires in Australia’s history, the efforts of those who have put their lives on the line will be forever acknowledged, with firefighters to be awarded a National Emergency Medal to honour their bravery.
Investigators have uncovered the cockpit voice recorder inside the wreckage of the C-130 Coulson plane which crashed on Thursday, killing three US firefighters. NSW Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are trying to figure out what caused the large air tanker to crash.
Original URL: https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/bush-fire-support/page/8