NSW bushfires: ‘Aggressive and high-risk strategies’ avert catastrophe

NSW bushfires: ‘Aggressive and high-risk strategies’ avert catastrophe

23 October 2013

published by www.smh.com.au


Australia — A high-risk gamble by firefighters paid off as NSW escaped one of its most threatening bushfire days on record largely unscathed. But the latest weather forecasts show an elevated threat for months to come.

Hot, dry conditions forecast for Wednesday arrived early in the morning and by mid-afternoon strong, gusty winds were fanning six major fires burning near homes in the Blue Mountains and the Hunter.

One of those that threatened throughout the day was the State Mine fire, which has terrorised tiny townships between Lithgow and the Blue Mountains for a week. The Rural Fire Service confirmed on Wednesday it had been caused by explosives training carried out in the area by the Department of Defence.

”That was the result of our investigation,” a Rural Fire Service spokesman said of the blaze which before Wednesday had destroyed three homes, damaged one other and burnt down seven sheds or businesses.

By nightfall, RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, who 24 hours earlier had warned of a day that was ”as bad as it gets”, declared the risk posed by Wednesday’s weather had ”been averted”.

No homes or lives had been lost by late Wednesday and Mr Fitzsimmons praised the efforts of a record contingent of firefighters who had been preparing for the nightmare conditions since the weekend.

Crews had undertaken ”aggressive and high risk strategies” to keep homes and communities safe, he said. ”Those strategies fortunately have paid off,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

The gamble included five continous days of back-burning, often carried out in unfavourable hot and windy conditions, as well as developing fallback strategies and options in the event fires wouldn’t be contained.

”It simply wasn’t an option to do nothing,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

Wednesday was fraught with danger. Two blazes started threatening homes in the Hunter region at Minmi west of Newcastle and at Gateshead in the Lake Macquarie region.

In the Blue Mountains the fire near Springwood, which claimed 200 homes last Thursday, flared up again because of strong winds that sent embers flying near homes.

At the height of the threat on Wednesday afternoon, those three fires were burning under emergency warnings, three others were burning under the second-highest alert level and there were 1400 firefighters trying to bring them under control.

Mr Fitzsimmons said: ”Never before have we seen the extent of damage and destruction and wide-scale fire activity at this time of the year. ”

A southerly change overnight was expected to bring cooler conditions on Thursday, but it would put pressure on some areas, with six fires still causing concern in NSW – at Bilpin, Mount York and Springwood in the Blue Mountains, near Balmoral village in the southern highlands and the two most recent blazes in the Hunter.

All have the potential to still be burning out of control next Tuesday when hot, dry conditions are forecast again.

Beyond next Tuesday, the state may get a couple of weeks of relatively benign fire conditions – by this season’s abnormal standards – but the three-month outlook from the weather bureau points to difficult conditions ahead.

The bureau rates the odds of above-average temperatures for the three months to the end of January as about a two-in-three chance for most of the state.

The near and longer term outlook for rain offers little relief either. The bureau is not expecting any significant falls over fire-affected areas and most of the rest of NSW for the next week at least.

Premier Barry O’Farrell praised the ”magnificent planning and preparation” of fire crews and the public in bushfire-threatened communities for doing their preparation or voluntarily evacuating their homes. But he said there had also been ”gut-wrenching” stories from the fires, including a landlord who asked his real estate agent to hike up the rental price on his property in the lower Blue Mountains because there would be an increase in demand due to the number of homes lost last week.

”It is just as gut-wrenching to hear this story as it is to hear of reports that 11-year-old children have lit fires or that there has been alleged reports of looting,” Mr O’Farrell told Fairfax Media.

”The last week has been characterised by communities and volunteers coming together to fight fires and support people and then you are pulled up by these acts of what I describe as bastardry.”
 


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