Insurance claims from bushfires in Queensland and NSW hit $145 million
22 November 2019
Published by https://www.smh.com.au/
AUSTRALIA – Damage claims from two weeks of intense bushfires in Queensland and NSW have hit $145 million and will certainly climb further, the Insurance Council of Australia says.
Firefighters are still assessing the damage, with 1340 claims lodged so far across both states.
House losses alone stand at 612 in NSW and 20 in Queensland, while many other homes have been damaged, rural assets lost, and grazing and cropping land blackened.
“Claims will continue to rise, and those dollar figures will continue to rise,” the insurance council’s Campbell Fuller told ABC radio.
On Friday, almost 60 fires were still burning across Queensland and 50 in NSW, but no property was under imminent threat.
Of the 20 homes lost in Queensland, most were destroyed in the Cobraball fire.
That blaze, in central Queensland, has burnt through more than 12,000 hectares of land, including 230 hectares of various crops, such as pineapple, mango and lychee.
Modelling by the state government has put agricultural losses associated with that fire at about $20 million, the ABC reports.
Queensland firefighters have made the most of two days of comparatively good conditions, working on containment lines around the most significant fires.
Authorities continue to work on a massive fire still burning on the Darling Downs. That blaze, taking in the Pechey, Ravensbourne, Esk and Crows Nest areas, is burning on a 100km front.
It’s smouldering on both sides of Esk Hampton Road between Horrex and Brennan roads, with small areas of fire continuing to actively burn.
Council officers are assessing trees and cleaning up around roads and structures to safely reopen roads in the coming days.
Another major blaze is still active in the Border Ranges, including Mount Barney, Mount Lindesay and Cunninghams Gap, and another on Moreton Island.
A very high fire danger remains in place for the Darling Downs and Granite Belt.
AAP
