Blood-red sky tells of terror to come
SOUTHERN holiday towns were more like ghost towns yesterday as they waited for a predicted storm of fire.
Seaside towns from the Victorian border to Nowra had been emptied, although a few determined locals hung on despite warnings.
The beaches were still popular — but not the way they usually are in the summer holidays. Instead, the coast was the last refuge for locals in case the expected blazes descended.
It was what NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons called “a very dangerous day”.
By 3pm more than 3000 volunteer firefighters were battling 146 fires burning across the state — 12 at an emergency level — as the record fire season that has killed 17 in NSW continued.
In Victoria, there were 21 people unaccounted for by midafternoon as devastating fires consumed more than 830,000ha.
Australian Defence Force helicopters were brought in to fly people to safety and residents in dozens of alpine towns were told it was too late to leave and urgently sought shelter as a wind change brought heavy gusts and helped out-of-control blazes swell in size.
Families left behind in cutoff Mallacoota also faced apocalyptic scenes as the sky turned dark as night and then glowed blood red.
Homeowners rushed to rewater their gutters as the wind pushed thick smoke and ash back towards the town.
In South Australia, two people were killed by fires that consumed Kangaroo Island.
Acclaimed Australian bush pilot Dick Lang, and his son, plastic surgeon Dr Clayton Lang, have been named as the victims in the blaze.
In NSW, the biggest fear was for the south coast towns.
The Currowan and Clyde Mountain fires threatened a massive area from north of Nowra down to almost Moruya.
Just south of that was another giant blaze stretching from southwest of Moruya to past Cobargo.
And, as the residents bunkered down and the conditions deteriorated late yesterday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian delivered the sobering message: “We’re in for a long night and I make no bones about that”.
Bermagui was eerily empty and among the few people in the town were the firefighters patrolling for falling embers.
Coolagolite resident Penny Selling was camping on the sand after leaving her home, a 15-minute drive to the west.
“I am waiting here and if the fire comes I’ll jump down (the beach escarpment) and cover myself in a wet woollen blanket,” she said.
Aaron Neilson, 22, was preparing to defend his family home on the eastern side of the town.
“I don’t think it will get this far but we will defend it if we have to,” he said. “If it does we will just go to the beach.”
Michelle Madelis was visibly shaky after leaving her Bermagui Heights home in the bush to stay with a friend closer to the town.
“I am in two minds whether to stay or to go (towards Canberra) but I have a 15-year-old labrador,” she said. “Am I worried? S**t yeah — our plan is to go to the pond at the golf course if it gets too bad.”
It was a similar story in Batemans Bay.
Jasmin Brett, 53, decided to leave her house two days ago and has been living out of her car on the beach because she said the evacuation centre in the town is overcrowded.
“I’ve got a little puppy and I don’t want to traumatise her with 10 million people and 10 million dogs — we’ll be staying here again tonight,” she said.
“I’ve locked everything up, shut every door in the house and put some photos in the bathtub — what can you do?”
Mass power outages cut electricity to 30,000 homes and businesses. Coles in Batemans Bay was closed yesterday and will be today with a sign on the door reading: “Hope all our customers stay safe through these trying times”.
Batemans Bay’s Susie Gilroy couldn’t even get milk.
“I was just thinking I would stock up just in case,” she said. “I’m in Catalina, it did get a little bit scary.”
South of Batemans Bay, the Badja Forest Rd fire turned the sky a smoky orange colour as the fire, which killed three people near Cobargo on Tuesday, extended further east.
Helicopters filled waterbombing buckets from Berrara Creek while canoes lined the bank in case residents needed to seek shelter on the water.
Matt Jansch, 40, jogged up and down Lakeway Ave, checking on hoses and dousing the homes of his neighbours who had evacuated.
“I’ve been up since 5.30am to hose fences and all the houses near me,” Mr Jansch said. “If I have to bail, I have my canoe at the end of the street.”