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NSW Rural Fire Service:
Large areas of the state are also forecast to experience Severe and Extreme fire danger. This includes in the north coast and northern NSW areas, where there is a large number of fires already burning. These fires will not be contained in time and will threaten lives and properties.
Based on latest forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology, the following fire danger ratings are expected on Tuesday. These are subject to change as forecasts are updated:
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- Catastrophic – Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter (including the Blue Mountains and Central Coast areas) and Illawarra/Shoalhaven
- Extreme – North Coast, Central Ranges, Northern Slopes and North Western
- Severe – Far North Coast, New England, Far South Coast, Southern Ranges, Lower Central West Plains......
A statewide total fire ban has been declared for all areas of NSW for all
of Tuesday 12 November 2019.
BACKGROUND
MSN News, 11 November 2019:
In the past I’ve have heard some federal politicians dodge the question of the influence of climate change on extreme weather and fires by saying, “It’s terrible that this matter is being raised while the fires are still burning.” But if not now, then when?
“Unprecedented” is a word that we are hearing a lot: from fire chiefs, politicians, and the weather bureau. I have just returned from California where I spoke to fire chiefs still battling unseasonal fires. The same word, “unprecedented”, came up.
Unprecedented dryness; reductions in long-term rainfall; low humidity; high temperatures; wind velocities; fire danger indices; fire spread and ferocity; instances of pyro-convective fires (fire storms – making their own weather); early starts and late finishes to bushfire seasons. An established long-term trend driven by a warming, drying climate. The numbers don’t lie, and the science is clear.
If anyone tells you, “This is part of a normal cycle” or “We’ve had fires like this before”, smile politely and walk away, because they don’t know what they’re talking about.
In NSW, our worst fire years were almost always during an El Nino event, and major property losses generally occurred from late November to February. Based on more than a century of weather observations our official fire danger season is legislated from October 1 to March 31. During the 2000s though, major fires have regularly started in August and September, and sometimes go through to April.
The October 2013 fires that destroyed more than 200 homes were the earliest large-loss fires in NSW history – again, not during an El Nino.
This year, by the beginning of November, we had already lost about as many homes as during the disastrous 2001-2002 bushfire season. We’ve now eclipsed 1994 fire losses.
Fires are burning in places and at intensities never before experienced – rainforests in northern NSW, tropical Queensland, and the formerly wet old-growth forests in Tasmania.
On Friday, the NSW Rural Fire Service sent out an alert that fires were creating thunderstorms – pyro-convective events. In my 47 years of fighting fires I don’t remember this happening much. Now it happens quite regularly. On Friday, the atmosphere was relatively stable and therefore shouldn’t have been conducive to these wildly unpredictable and dangerous events. Yet it happened. Unprecedented.
The drought we are facing is more intense than the Millennium Drought, with higher levels of evaporation due to higher temperatures. This has dried out the bush and made it easier for fires to start, easier for them to spread quickly, and as we saw on Friday, enabling spot fires to start twice as far ahead of the main fires as we would normally expect.
Warmer, drier conditions with higher fire danger are preventing agencies from conducting as much hazard reduction burning – it is often either too wet, or too dry and windy to burn safely. Blaming "greenies" for stopping these important measures is a familiar, populist, but basically untrue claim.
Together with 22 other retired fire and emergency service chiefs, I spoke out earlier this year. We felt we had a duty to tell people how climate change is super-charging our natural disaster risks. I wish we were wrong, but we’re not.
The Daily Examiner, 11 November 2019:
Multiple homes in and around Nymboida have been destroyed after a fire storm swept through the area on Friday night.
The Liberation Trail fire was one of at least 14 out of control blazes simultaneously at Emergency Warning status during in was described by NSW Rural Fire Service as an unprecedented level of fire activity.
Residents were evacuated over to locations at Grafton including Headspace and Hawthorne Park. The Armidale Rd remains closed at Coutts Crossing and many are yet to return to find out the full extent of damage to their properties.
However, one Nymboida resident did stay to successfully protect his home from devastation.
As fire fighting resources were depleted, so too were those of the national media, with the Clarence Valley largely off the radar as networks concentrated on fires further south. But one crew did manage to reach Nymboida resident Peter Simpson.
Mr Simpson’s actions coupled with a solid fire plan almost certainly saved his home.
While resources were stretched with every available RFS vehicle on the ground assisting with the fires, the breadth of fires meant crews simply couldn’t be in every danger zone.
“It was like an inferno, it was like the apocalypse, it was like hell on earth,” Mr Simpson told Channel 7 reporters.
“I hosed and hosed and hosed, drained my dams, and I just hung here for the whole night. I’m glad I put my buffer in and had a fire plan.
“It’s carnage. Every second house on this road’s gone, the whole of Fricker Road’s gone, village gone, and surrounding houses, most of Nymboida is going to be displaced because they have nowhere to live.
“I’m just glad that I’m safe, and I’m really sorry for every person in this whole area that’s lost out. My heart bleeds for them.
“I can’t believe there was no help. There were no water bombers.”
At Tallawudjah Creek near Glenreagh, RFS aerial support helped to save Renay Hayes’ property.
Ms Hayes said the past few days had been the most terrifying of her life and she thanked some “legends” in the sky.
“The fire got really close,” she said. “There were flames we could see coming over the mountain at us,” Ms Hayes said. “It was so scary.”
“We didn’t have warning really. We knew it was there, but it was a matter of 20 minutes between us being in the safe zone and the flames coming at us.”
Ms Hayes said the sounds of helicopters made her even more petrified, but as the fire got closer, those same helicopters attacked the fire and saved her property.
“The chopper was doing 1 minute 43 seconds from pick up to dump,” she said.
“It was terrifying, and we were pretty sure our house was gone, but that legend or legends in that chopper saved us.
“Whoever was in that craft saved my house, and I cannot thank them enough.”
Ms Hayes walked her horses 3km to safety.
“We are still on evacuation list, but unless the wind comes back we are okay,” she said on Saturday night. “There were friends who lost their houses, but I’m not certain how many are gone. I know two for certain, it’s still mighty orange here.”
“I’ve been here for 32 years and never seen it like this.”
The Daily Examiner, 11 November 2019, p.5:
A collapsed bridge has restricted access to properties in the Kangaroo Creek area as residents return to assess the damage from bushfires.
The bridge located 18km along Kangaroo Creek Rd collapsed after being damaged by fires in the out of control Liberation Trail bush fire, which has now burnt more than 113,100 hectares of land.
Grafton real estate agent Adam Crawley took the photo on Saturday while going to check on a friend’s place who is currently in India.
“I wasn’t out there last night (Friday) and I’m glad I wasn’t it looks pretty hairy,” Mr Crawley said.
“(There’s) no burnt houses that I saw but everything else is burned. All the way up to people’s sheds, water tanks and cars.”
The road to Nymboida is closed at the Kangaroo Creek Road turnoff, and authorities are urging any non-essential travel to be postponed to alleviate congestion in fire hotspots.
A 50km stretch of the Armidale Rd between Coutts Crossing and Clouds Creek which includes Nymboida is closed in both directions.
Motorists are advised to avoid the area.
The Daily Examiner, 11 November 2019, p.3:
A woman was killed trying to protect her home from a bush fire near Glen Innes.
Vivian Chaplain was at her property at Wytaliba on the upper reaches of the Mann River on Friday night when flames tore through the town.
She was found near her shed unconscious and suffering burns to at least 40 per cent of her body.
Tasmanian fire fighters, deployed to NSW to help with the bushfire emergency, performed CPR and first aid on the victim for "several hours".
She was eventually flown to Concord Hospital and died overnight.
The Coffs Coast Advocate, 11 November 2019:
RESIDENTS in the Orara Valley are being advised to consider leaving their properties tonight as a catastrophic 24-hours looms, in what potentially could end as one of the worst days for bushfire destruction in NSW's history.
This morning the Rural Fire Service has staged an emergency briefing at its fire control centre in Coffs Harbour.
Information on dangerous fire and conditions has been circulated for residents in the Nana Glen, Lowanna, Ulong, Megan/Cascade, Coramba, Karangi, Orara, Bucca and greater Coffs Harbour areas....
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| The Rural Fire Service's Greater Coffs Harbour Fire Prediction Map released this morning. |
7 News, 10 November 2019:
Wytaliba is "burning like a BBQ" after a devastating bushfire descended on the northern NSW town, claiming the lives of two people.
On Sunday afternoon the out-of-control fire, which has burnt through more than 12,450 hectares, was rated at watch and act.
It has been reported the second victim of Friday's firestorm, who was found in a burnt car near Glen Innes, is George Nole.
Those who knew Mr Nole, an elderly man from Wytaliba, took to Facebook to pay tribute to him.
"He was such a gentlemen. Will be missed by many," Crystal Grob posted.
RFS member Peter Chaffey, who has command of Wytaliba area, said it was likely the community wouldn't be allowed down the steep, winding, 12-kilometre road to the town, until Monday morning.
"The whole hill has been impacted by fire and every time we go down there, we have to clear the road," he told AAP.
"It is a crime scene down there and we have to let the police do their thing."
Mr Chaffey said a press photographer in the town early on Sunday morning focused on the car Mr Nole died in - an act that had "stirred up the community to no end".
"We've got a really sensitive community," he said.
"I know the world wants to see the pictures.
"But I was speaking to a woman who said 'I haven't been able to get in there, I had dogs chained up and other pets. I know they're deceased.'
"She needs to go in and deal with that - not see it (first) on the news."
NOTE:
In NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government's 2019-20 Budget, Rural Fire Service funding was $26.7 million less than in 2018-19 with capital expenditure funding $49.9 million less.
NOTE:
In NSW Berejiklian Coalition Government's 2019-20 Budget, Rural Fire Service funding was $26.7 million less than in 2018-19 with capital expenditure funding $49.9 million less.
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