NSW Bushfires

[Majestic]

I know many of you have not heard, due to not living in my country but NSW (New South Wales) my state has been ravished by Bushfires. Over 100 are burning currently with 34 last time I checked out of control. I moved 2 months ago and lucky I did as from where I was living only a few kilometers away one of the out of control bushfires are heading towards Caves Beach. It has killed 1 person so far who had a hear attack while trying to defend his home and over 50 homes are conformed destroyed with more than 100 suspected destroyed.

Fires are also burning in Raymond Terrace (north of Newcastle), Wyong/Catherine Hill Bay/Gwandalan (this is where Kat lived when we met)/Nords Wharf (all a tad south of Newcastle near where we used to live), Musswellbrook/Singleton (went through there on my way here), the Blue Mountains (between us and Sydney) and Lithgow (45 mins away from here between us and the Blue Mountains) and so we are cut off from Newcastle (where we used to live) which is about 5 hours away. I am sure I had forgotten a few. The Raymond Terrace fire was deliberately lit by a kid (16 years old) living near Kat's mum who also lit a fire there as well. He has been arrested and facing court sometime today (if not already).

Here I was concerned about Jetfreak and the Earthquake in his country a couple of days ago, which he is safe thankfully, when I should have equally been concerned about us.

This morning we woke up with smoke all around us, the wind blew the smoke from Lithgow to us. But we are safe at the moment. Hopefully we remain that way as we back onto a mountain covered is food for the fire. If anything changes and we have the opportunity to notify you all we will.

This is the worst bushfire for NSW in over a decade, and we have only entered spring, so this is going to be a very bad summer.

 

[Katala]

This map shows the major area for the fires.
The yellow outline at the top of the map is the biggest one right now, the orange circles below it are other fires currently burning.
They are now spreading north of Lithgow which is the direction we live in,
its still a fair distance away from us but any weather change could speed it up and cause it to flare out of control again.
Right now our Maj and I only have to worry about the smoke from these fires thankfully.
Tomorrow (our saturday) is the only cool day we will have as sunday and monday are forecast to be more scorching days, we are currently in mid spring, I would hate to think what summer holds for us.

The town we lived in just before moving here was evacuated last night as the fire reach the towns outer limits and also destroyed some historic buildings and icons in the area.

A crazy kid who lives a few houses away from my mum lit a fire at the end of her street and another one north of Newcastle at Heatherbrae/Raymond Terrace and then him and his buddies bragged about it all over facebook, since we all shared it the police had no trouble capturing this fire bug and arresting him.

I think we were lucky to move when we did, thankfully the death toll so far as only been one elderly man who had a heart attack whilst trying to save his neighbours shed then later died in hospital, his neighbours have taken in his dog.

One of my brother's is a fire fighter and was admitted to hospital last night from severe smoke inhalation and heat stroke, he spent the day at home with his partner and their 5year old son however tomorrow he will be back out on the fire grounds battling to protect homes, there were also alot of fire fighters who were out saving other peoples homes and lost theirs in the the process.

In the mean time Queensland are suffering from severe storms and hail, I'm wondering if they are going to get another year of floods like they did in the 2010/2011 christmas season.

 

[Hellkite]

I sorry to hear this my friends but am happy to hear that you are safe

 

[Majestic]

Thanks mate, we are doing fine today so far, clear skies with no smoke from what I can see. Hopefully they can get the fires under control today before the hot days hit on Sunday and Monday.

 

[Chiletrek]

Hello:
This is horrible news, I have also known about fatal victims, so I hope the fires can be stopped very soon to prevent even more damage.
Some people of another forum I check might still have to evacuate, but hopefully that will not be the case.
I hope the situation will be solved before the hotter days start.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Chile, the first hot day is supposed to start today. Only one person so far as died (to my knowledge), he was at Lake Munmorah (about 20 mins where I used to live). He had a hear attack while staying to try and save a neighbours shed. His neighbours as Kat has said took in his dog.

Unfortunately some of these fires may take weeks to put out without a few days of torrential rain. Luckily for us we have the best firefighters in the world. They go through bushfires every summer and with so much bushland in this country fires have so much fuel in which to burn. They have started back burning which has helped to stop some fires and save many lives and property. This has come very early this year, we normally don't have this kind of thing until December, so it's taken us all by surprise. Several of the fires were deliberately lit and another many have accidentally been lit by the mines and their blasting. We know one was lit when a powerlines when done in the Blue Mountains. This just reaffirms the need to get all our powerlines under ground like never housing estates have.

But with a Liberal government now, highly unlikely they will be done. Our new PM (an embarrassment to call him that, so much of a puppet to the powerful non-government types and no skillset what so ever to lead) has been reported to the AU Federal police on corruption suspicions for using tax players money for personal trips have has a few of his members. I for one didn't vote for him.

We will keep you posted if anything changes for us, the worse we had had is thick black smoke blowing over from Lithgow, happened on Friday and started again yesterday evening but it's clear today. We are about 45mins away from the closest fire.

 

[Rifraf]

I was just reading through all the news on the CNN website and there was a link about the anatomy of a bush fire which was an article about the fires you are currently experiencing. There were several other links as well talking about the fires with pictures and such. So terrible, but always fascinating to read. Unfortunately, as you've stated this fire near you was man made which is just incomprehensible. One of the articles stated 200 homes burned so far with the one victim still being reported as the only casualty. Stay safe

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Rifraf.

Kat's brother, who is a volunteer fire fighter has given us warning that the fire at Lithgow is heading north (our direction) and is on our side of Lithgow. It also looks like it could merge with a couple other fires and if that happens it will speed up. While we are uphill from Lithgow as we are at a higher elevation he has given us a heads up and be prepared for evacuation. Usually you only get 30 mins to evacuate when the warning is issued. It's still a fair distance from us as it takes 45 mins to get to Lithgow doing 100km/h but the fires can move extremely fast at times and so we are packing the car tonight ready just incase.

New South Wales (the state I live in) has been declared a natural disaster zone, with police given emergency powers to forcefully remove anyone in the effected areas. These are the worst fires in 50 years.

 

[CABAL]

I hope the fire doesn't reach you guys; you just moved. Good luck to you all and stay safe.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Cabal, I too hope it doesn't reach us. As you said we just moved and it's a lovely area and a great house, we don't want to loose it. One of my biggest concerns is if it hits the ranges, if it does they could loose most of the state and may as well evacuate NSW if that happens.

 

[Katala]

The fires are certainly taking their toll on our land and fire fighters, there are fire fighters coming in from other states as well as from New Zealand and other state emergency services are now also being brought in to help contain fires and if it keeps up no doubt the military will be called upon to help as well as they do in such cases.

We are forecast rain for this evening but also thunderstorms, unfortunately the amount of rain forecast is only 2mm which is no where near enough to help contain these fires, unfortunately we are now getting hot winds which are not helping, the smoke is now so thick in Lithgow etc that it is affecting our tv transmissions, we dont get perfect signal normally but one channel is usually perfect but now its constantly cutting out on us, as Maj said my brother is a volunteer fire fighter and is keeping me up-to-date on everything happening, he is currently at this moment in the midst of the fires trying to help contain the Lithgow fires, however there are some low lifes going around stealing much needed equipment from the fire trucks!

 

[Majestic]

Here is a link to the RFS website, http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?CAT_ID=683

You can see on the map how bad it is. The northern most red fire (State Mine Fire) is the one near us, we are only a little bit north of it on the map (at Kandos).

The black area is the current fires, We are at Kandos just north of it.