Angourie threatened .. Thornton Fallender interviewed as fires are pushed up the coast.
Been a bizarre afternoon on the North Coast. I can’t imagine what the Yamba/Angas crew are going through.
It’s been a scary few days. The land is dry as a bone with howling winds and zero humidity. The air filled with smoke and fresh plumes round the compass every few hours .
My parents place is the sole house perched high on a hill and surrounded by gumtree covered valley on all sides . It’s nerve wracking watching the weather report on a run up towards a spell of weather as we are experiencing .
I get out there as often as I can. Went out there to unblock the septic on Saturday and found the ground covered with blackened and burnt leaves from a fire behind the range . A fire which is perhaps 100 kms away as the crow flies. The leaves must lift on the intense thermal updrafts created by the fire then blow towards the coast with the howling offshores. Just goes to show how far a fire can spread in the right conditions.
It’s my number one fear as far as my elderly parents are concerned.
Having said that , the house we are in had bushfire to the back deck a few years ago, so no one is safe. At least I’d get us onto the beach here , I can just imagine my parents panicking and getting stuck or just waiting too late to leave. Their driveway is 500 metres long and through a virtual tunnel of gumtrees and other flammable natives.
Gives me nightmares.
Hope everyone in Anga’s is safe . Same for everyone watching the RFS site tonight.
That is nuts.
Southerly has backed off here on the MNC this arvo, but it has now kicked again up to 70km/h. Will be a rough night at Angourie.
5:35am update: "There is fire burning to the north and south of Angourie and Wooloweyah. The fire is impacting on the southern side of the villages. Overnight the fire breached containment lines North of Angourie village to the east of Angourie Road, the fire has slowly progressed north easterly towards Yamba. The southerly change forecast, is expected to impact the fireground until late morning. This may push the fire further towards Yamba."
Thoughts go out to anyone affected by these fires.
For anyone affected in NSW, Fire Service maps and information
https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me
For anyone effected in Queensland, Qld Rural Fire Service maps and info
https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/map/Pages/default.aspx
Some mainstream media’s coverage of this has been unsurprisingly sensationalistic. Clickbait articles and coverage confusing the very real danger some people are in, presumably to grab more ratings. Nothing new for 2019, but sheesh
Yeah, thoughts for those affected, unprecedented for this time of year and so coastal.
During past extreme fire events in Victoria ABC Radio has provided excellent real time information to people in affected areas. Hopefully they are doing it for NSW and Qld now.
Angourie had a slight reprieve from the wind overnight, with the breeze easing to under 10kts and holding through this morning.
However it's just picked up again from the south, and is now gusting 30kts. It'll be a very tense day for Angourie, Wooloweyah and Yamba residents.
"Firefighters and aircraft have slowed the spread of the fire. Conditions are easing and the immediate threat to properties has eased."
Promising info. Though fire coverage map shows just how close it got.
It's a little deceiving (see below), and not perfectly to scale either.
Too much too soon...Goldie copped it!
Excellent reporting on fires swellnet...
Good Luck Northern Rivers...here's your neighbourhood safety zones...
https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/plan-and-prepare/neighbourhood-safer-places
Good Luck Sunny Coast...here's your neighbourhood safety zones.
https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/BushFire_Safety/Neighbourhood-Safer-Pl…
I remember a fire back in the 90 s that was started by the National parks rangers the day before a big southerly change was due.That fire was stopped just before it burnt out wooloweyah...so who started this one?
Talking to friends in both Anga's and the Sunny Coast and they have all spoke so highly of the RFS and emergency services during these fires. Those boys are heroes.
It was burning at shark creek behind Maclean for about 2 weeks. Then these howling westerlies whipped it up and drove it towards the coast and into the national park. Cue the big southerly change to push it towards angas.
Been an interesting little study on human behaviour over the last couple of days. Plenty of shrill misinformation on social media causing unnecessary panic in areas. Shows up lots of peoples basic misunderstanding of weather and the natural environment.
A good mate had to evacuate at Peregian and a couple of others in Coolum and surrounds are watching it closely.
Hope all stay safe and all the best to the Sunny coasters and others affected by the fires.
I read that it was lit by a a couple of tweenage mutton heads doin' it for a laugh. Yeah, having your house burnt down is hilarious. Even posted about it online.
It's getting harder and harder to top stupidity these days.
... but easier and easier to track said stupitidy!
I'm going to leave that spelling error there to show I'm not immune... :)
Hope everyone is well. Wye River down this way some years ago, there was a big fire that got into the town. For more than two weeks afterward we were surfing amongst blackened eucalypt leaves, and they were washing up on the shore in black lines at the high tide marks. I was up past midnight the big night of the fire, the SW was in which would blow it right up the coast. Wanted to see if it was coming from the nearest lookout, why so spooked? See below.
Blowin hope your folks are OK - you could always force them to move in with you if you are in a safer place.
I'm an Ash Wednesday child, will never forget that day, the weeks leading up to it (that Melbourne dust storm day), and what the coast looked like afterward. Only time I ever saw my father afraid.
The Aireys Pub burned down and I was in tears when I asked Dad if the catfish in the aquarium in the pub survived and he said, no everything was gone.
ABC news tonight. The blaze is unstoppable. Angourie isolated.