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Another 100 houses feared lost in devastating NSW blazes

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The NSW Rural Fire Service says another 100 homes are believed to have been destroyed in fires that tore through the state at the weekend.

RFS deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said property losses were not finalised because crews were still going through areas affected by the blazes that flared up in catastrophic conditions.

“I think it’ll be another 24 hours before we get an accurate number but I think it is fair to say it is around 100,” he said on Monday.

That would bring the total number of houses lost in NSW this bushfire season to more about 850.

Areas hardest hit in the weekend fires include Lithgow and along the Bells Line of Road in the upper Blue Mountains, and the Wollondilly Shire villages of Buxton and Bargo, which were ravaged for the second time in three days.

Residents of Balmoral, a rural town of about 400 people south-west of Sydney, are expecting the worst, following a bushfire that is feared to have all but wiped out the town.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said damage assessment teams had relayed the news that “there’s not much left in the town of Balmoral”.

The Balmoral RFS captain has told ABC radio that his brigade ran out of water trying to fight the furious blaze.

The first residents will return to Balmoral and Buxton on Monday afternoon, on buses organised by the Wingecarribee Shire Council.

Matthew Deeth, the mayor of the neighbouring Wollondilly Shire Council, said the fires took a heavy toll on Balmoral.

“They were all banding together until they got hit yesterday and they were just decimated,” he said.

“Most people were pulled out of their houses and if there was nobody defending houses they kind of just all lit up.”

Mr Rogers said more than three million hectares had burnt this fire season.

“It’s an enormous amount of the landscape and forested areas,” he said.

“We shouldn’t underestimate just how much of the natural environment is being burnt and that’s got serious ecological impacts as well as the fire impact … I think that’ll be felt for years to come.”

Earlier on Monday, NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said firefighters would take advantage of more favourable conditions expected to stick around until the end of the week.

He said they were doing significant backburning in the Blue Mountains and south-west Sydney.

“A massive amount of work right across fire grounds the length and breadth of the state will continue throughout this Christmas-New Year period,” Mr Fitzsimmons told Seven’s Sunrise.

He said firefighters were “absolutely tired” but doing a remarkable job.

“Yes they’re fatigued – physically fatigued, emotionally fatigued – but they know their communities are under threat and they’re going to do all they can,” he said.

“Particularly over this Christmas-New Year period to get some of this critical work underway and shore up as much protection as they can.”

NSW’s firefighting ranks were bolstered at the weekend with the arrival of crews from Canada and the US.

On Monday, NSW Police said they weren’t aware of any people being unaccounted for in the fires after fears were raised over a missing man from the rural village of Bell.

Although conditions are forecast to ease over the coming week, Mr Fitzsimmons has painted a grim picture of the longer-term weather outlook for NSW.

“We’ve got to keep in mind that we’re not expecting any rainfall to make any meaningful difference to these fires until January or February,” he has said previously.

“That’s still a way to go. We’re still talking four to six weeks at best before we start to see a meaningful reprieve in the weather.”

-with AAP

The post Another 100 houses feared lost in devastating NSW blazes appeared first on The New Daily.


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