'An awful day': At least 60 homes lost in NSW bushfires

Authorities fear hundreds of properties have been damaged or destroyed overnight in the ongoing bushfire disaster sweeping NSW.

Firefighters contain a small bushfire which closed the Princes Highway south of Ulladulla on Sunday.

Firefighters contain a small bushfire which closed the Princes Highway south of Ulladulla on Sunday. Source: AAP

NSW is counting the cost of another day of horror bushfires, which left one person dead and at least 60 homes destroyed.

Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers confirmed 60 home were lost as fires swept south-eastern parts of the state on Saturday but said "we know there is more".

"We know there is a significant damage to infrastructure in the Snowy area and we also know that there are communities like Batlow that have been extremely hard-hit," he told ABC on Sunday.
Mr Rogers said the situation had eased at coastal town Eden,

"The fire is a bit south of Eden and we are comfortable for people to be in their homes at the moment ... Crews are there. We are watching the fire and if the situation changes, we will advise that community but at the moment, we need to let the community just recover a little bit."

Earlier, authorities confirmed a 47-year-old man died of a cardiac arrest on Saturday night while defending a friend's rural property near Batlow, southwest of Canberra.
A property impacted by the Currowan Fire in Conjola Park, NSW.
A property impacted by the Currowan Fire in Conjola Park, NSW. Source: AAP
Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Sunday, "we can't pretend this is something we have experienced before - it's not". 

"The weather activity we're seeing, the extent and spread of the fires, the speed at which they're going, the way in which they're attacking communities who've never ever seen fire before, is unprecedented."

There were 146 bushfires burning in NSW on Sunday afternoon with 65 uncontained.
Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons warned NSW residents not to become complacent.

"We are seeing an easing of conditions right across the state and there's even a bit of drizzle down on the South Coast," the commissioner told reporters.

"It's certainly a welcome reprieve ... but, unfortunately, it's not putting out the fires and it's not helping us with furthering back burning and consolidation work."

Mr Fitzsimmons said crews this week would try and put in additional containment lines before warmer and windier conditions returned by next weekend.
The RFS commissioner said people needed to remain vigilant because "complacency kills".

Crews are conducting surveys to determine how many homes were lost this weekend, but the RFS suspects it was hundreds.

Areas thought to be hardest hit include Bundanoon, Wingello, Batlow, Adelong, the Jervis Bay area, southwest of Nowra, Boydtown, Kiah, Wonboyn, Towamba and Cabramurra.

A number of hospitals and health services had to be relocated from Tumbarumba, Batlow, Pambula, Delegate and Tumut.

"It was an awful day yesterday - it was a very difficult day," Mr Fitzsimmons said.
"We are getting reports that the property losses, the damage and destruction, is likely to be numbering in the hundreds as a result of yesterday's fire activity and fire spread."

At one stage on Saturday afternoon there were 13 bushfires burning at an emergency level.

"That's second only to what we saw a couple of months ago where 17 concurrent fires were burning [at emergency]," Mr Fitzsimmons said.

Two firefighters suffered smoke inhalation overnight while protecting water infrastructure in the South Coast town of Milton.
A statewide total fire ban is in place on Sunday while a week-long state of emergency - the third in as many months - continues.

The M5 was briefly closed in Sydney due to smoke from a bushfire near Liverpool.




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4 min read
Published 5 January 2020 6:47pm
Updated 5 January 2020 7:35pm

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