Bushfire crisis: fears for hundreds of homes
The worst bushfire crisis in NSW in a decade is still “very active” despite improved conditions, as damage assessment crews head to fire grounds where around 100 properties are feared destroyed.
As interstate firefighters make their way to NSW to help battle the state’s worst bushfires in a decade, reports emerged that a man has died defending his home from a bushfire on the NSW Central Coast.
An RFS spokesman told AAP the 63-year-old man suffered a heart attack while he was fighting a fire at his home at Lake Munmorah on Thursday afternoon.
Attempts were made to resuscitate him at the scene but he died at Wyong hospital.
On Friday, firefighters were defending properties on the eastern side of Murrays Beach at Lake Macquarie on the Central Coast and around 170 firefighters were continuing to battle a blaze at Springwood, which had become active again.
A fire was continuing to burn near the villages of Balmoral, Yanderra and Bargo in the southern highlands.
NSW Rural Fire Services spokesman Brendan Doyle says the state’s most serious fire at Wyong is burning close to homes at Waynes Beach.
“It is still an emergency warning. It’s burning near homes and it’s shutting the road network around there,” he told reporters at RFS headquarters.
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He said Swansea RSL was available for fire-affected people in the area to take refuge.
Around 2000 firefighters were currently battling blazes across the state, with 368 vehicles deployed, while 82 aircraft have either been deployed or are on standby across NSW.
RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons warned that the emergency could continue for days or weeks, describing the situation as “very active, very dynamic, very dangerous”.
He said conditions were much better for firefighters on Friday, following a very hot and extremely windy Thursday.
“We’re going to see conditions considerably cooler and humidity will be much higher,” he said.
Specialists will on Friday assess the damage in areas that had borne the brunt of the fires. Residents in many areas have not been allowed to return home yet.
Emergency Services Minister Michael Gallacher said fire commissioners had been telling him around 100 properties may have been lost in the Blue Mountains alone.
“They’re saying if we get away with 100 house losses just in homes being lost in Springwood we’re going to come off very lucky,” he told ABC radio.
Imaging he had seen suggested potential losses were even higher, he added.
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“Given what we saw yesterday it’s pretty clear we’re going to have some absolutely shattered people and a shattered community this morning”.
The RFS had not received any reports of deaths or serious injuries, but two firefighters were being treated for burns at Concord hospital.
The mayor of the Blue Mountains praised the resilience of residents who lost their homes in Thursday’s bushfires.
“The Blue Mountains has experienced bushfire before, but nothing like this,” Mark Greenhill told the Seven Network.
“We lost scores of homes. There are a lot of families without homes right through the area.
“We spent the evening … comforting residents who had lost everything. This has been a very tough 24 hours for the community of the Blue Mountains.”
Premier Barry O’Farrell also praised the cooperation and coordination of fire fighting crews.
He said he had signed an order to ensure volunteers fighting the fires weren’t penalised by employers.
Meanwhile, police issued a plea for residents and onlookers stay away from fire-damaged areas.
“This is understandably a distressing time for people, however, it is really important for people to stay away until the area has been deemed safe,” Assistant Commissioner Alan Clarke said.
Seven schools in the Blue Mountains, one in the Blue Mountains and one in Lithgow remained closed on Friday.
Newcastle Airport, however, has reopened after being shut down by the fires on Thursday.
Aviation Business Development Manager David Nye told AAP the backlog was expected to be cleared and flights back on schedule by early lunchtime.
“We will have got quite a few people through the airport within the next 30 or 40 minutes and then hopefully the second wave of aircraft will come in and get to some type of normality by lunchtime or early afternoon,” he said.
He said around 15 flights were grounded from Thursday lunchtime.
