The Rural Fire Service has defended not accepting an offer of help from its urban firefighting counterpart, while pledging to investigate serious communications problems that left many residents without warning of the approaching fire.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the urban firefighting brigade, Fire and Rescue NSW, offered to send a pumper to help the RFS when triple-0 calls began to flood in, but was turned away twice, according to News Corp.
The RFS deputy commissioner, Rob Rogers, defended the decision, saying the urban pumper was unsuitable for a bushfire burning in such difficult terrain.
“The fire was burning in remote mountainous terrain. The vehicle available was an urban pumper,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t have the safe sprays or anything like that to operate in that environment. It would have been dangerous to have them there.”
Evacuated Tathra residents were yet to be allowed back into the small coastal town on Tuesday morning, due to fears that airborne asbestos may pose a health risk.
A bus will take some residents to inspect the destruction, but they will not be able to get out and return to their homes.
Stories of heroism continued to emerge on Tuesday morning from those who stayed to battle the fire.
Neighbours Dan Morrah and Peter Inkster stayed to defend their properties on Sunday afternoon as the fire made its rapid approach towards the coast, fuelled by hot temperatures, strong winds and dry conditions.
Neither Morrah or Inkster received any warning through the smartphone-based alert system. In fact, they told Guardian Australia they did not receive a landline call or a knock on the door, despite being directly in the fire’s path.
When asked what alerted him to the coming fire, Morrah said: “Smoke, a lot of it. In a matter of two hours it was on us. I mean it was raging. I had to get off the roof, and I had to get off because I couldn’t stand it. It got up to 100-110km/h.”
The pair worked in tandem as the fire front moved through, running between their neighbour’s homes, putting out spot fires as they emerged.
Morrah saw backyard retaining walls made of tyres fully ablaze. He battled a fire as it climbed the steps up towards a neighbour’s backyard verandah, saving the house from destruction.
The smoke was so intense they could scarcely breath or see.
Between the efforts of locals and firefighters, some 398 homes are thought to have been saved.
Evacuated residents are expected to get their first glimpse of the destruction on Tuesday morning. The RFS will hold a community meeting at the Bega showgrounds evacuation centre at 10am to update the community on the situation in Tathra.
A bus will then take residents through the town, but they will not be allowed to return to their homes.
Firefighters have raised asbestos fears, and are conducting testing throughout the area to make sure it’s safe. There are also concerns about power lines and unsafe structures.
A community meeting will be held at the Bega Showground at 10am to update residents. Representatives will be on hand from 9am to answer questions. After the meeting a bus will take residents to see their properties. Support services will be available. https://t.co/nLd0cWqPsy
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) March 19, 2018
Cooler weather overnight and on Tuesday is set to help firefighters gain control of the blaze, which has so far burnt through more than 1,200 hectares of bush. Fire activity has eased but crews are still working to contain it.
Possible showers on Tuesday night are also expected to aid the efforts of firefighters.
The fire destroyed about 100 buildings – homes, cabins, caravans and other properties – on Sunday. One of those homes belonged to Inkster’s mother-in-law.
He said her home was likely one of the first to go. She had been away visiting her daughter. It meant she was safe, but lost almost everything she owned.
“The smoke came first, there was a little bit of fire, then it just hooked in, because the wind was just so strong,” Inkster said.
