Australian bush fires – Blue Mountains avoid the worst
The aggressive tactics of the New South Wales fire department seemed to have contained the blazes in the Blue Mountains.
For the residents of Sydney, the Blue Mountains have long offered a dose of peace and quiet. Some spend their leisure time there – others have moved up to the mountains permanently, living in communities nestled amongst spectacular escarpments and dense eucalyptus forests.
After a week of bush fires however, this scenic spot has become a dangerous place to be.
The Blue Mountains have been burning red and the authorities told people to stay clear. “If you don’t have a plan, let me give you one,” said New South Wales’ Emergency Minister Michael Gallacher. “Get into the car, drive down to the city metropolitan area and let the firefighters do what they can to protect the community, should this turn for the worse.”
Well at the moment, it seems the worst had been averted.
Today was marked out for special concern, with the forecast promising a potentially lethal combination of hot temperatures and high wind speeds. The authorities responded in kind, moving in more than 3,000 fire fighters and evacuating large areas of the state.
Residents of Blue Mountain communities were told to leave their homes by lunch today and the majority seemed to heed the advice, loading up the back of their cars with photo albums and books and family heirlooms.
On the outskirts of New South Wales’ second largest city Newcastle there was a similar sense of urgency.
Residents of the suburb of Minmi were given little time to react when a fire sprung up nearby. Many rushed to complete a list of must-do jobs designed to save their homes from conflagration. Television footage captured locals up on their roofs, dousing them with water, while others rushed to cut the grass or fill up swimming pools.
“Yeah, we’ve been told that it’s heading this way and it’s coming at a great pace by the fire brigade,” said one local resident. “We’ve packed all of our important documents, albums, jewelry, clothes. Now we’re just hosing the house. That’s all we can do,” she added.
As the day wore on, the omnipresent head of the state’s rural fire service, Shane Fitzsimmons, had some positive news to deliver:
“(Our) aggressive and high-risk strategies have paid off,” he said referring to a number of manoeuvres including extensive “back-burning” or controlled burns, designed to deny oncoming fires additional fuel.
Mr Fitzsimmons knows the risks better than most – he lost his father to a bushfire in 2000 but he looked relieved this evening at a press conference.
“If you were someone who was told to depart the Blue Mountains today and relocate, have a cup of tea and be out of harm’s way (but) then it would be safe to head back home tonight.”
It seems then the crisis has been contained. There has been no more loss of life or property on this, the most worrisome of days.
Still, it may only be the beginning. A long hot summer awaits the residents of this state.
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