Bushfires claim several homes on NSW South Coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

NSW fire authorities have confirmed several homes have been lost in the Bega Valley on the state's south coast after bushfires tore through the area.

Transcript

00:00 The look is still a little bit touch and go here on the far south coast given the recent

00:07 fire activity further south of here.

00:10 I'm in the town of Bermagui which is just north of the active fire front and the Koolagalite

00:16 fire has burned to over 5,000 hectares.

00:19 In fact it's still burning in the Cuttergy, Barraga Bay, Murrah, Bunga and Golan Head

00:24 area.

00:25 Firefighters are still working to contain the fire and residents in that area are still

00:30 told to be on high alert.

00:32 Now the situation is that we hope that these cooler conditions will be of some reprieve

00:38 to firefighters working on the ground.

00:40 We are anticipating some rain to come through as well.

00:42 It's not yet hit but we are certainly holding out for it to really ease conditions on the

00:48 fire ground.

00:50 Now I'm actually here joined by a local Barraga Bay resident, Sheena Baljan.

00:55 She's also an ambassador at Four Winds which is a national music venue at Barraga Bay.

01:00 Thank you for joining me Sheena.

01:02 Good morning.

01:03 What is the situation for you at the moment?

01:05 Well we're as you said in the town of Bermagui and we live 9km south of Barraga Bay in a

01:13 beautiful spotted gum forest just off the main road and we evacuated yesterday afternoon.

01:19 The good news for us personally is that my husband has done a brilliant system of protection

01:27 for the house after the last fire.

01:29 So we spent the night with him looking at his phone because the system he's set up combines

01:36 our battery and cameras all around the property and ember sensors and then the sprinklers.

01:44 So he's designed this system with electric pumps that he can turn on and off from his

01:50 phone.

01:51 So Sheena is your understanding that your property is safe?

01:53 Yeah, we're very confident it is.

01:55 We don't know if there are spot fires close by.

01:58 We know there are at Barraga.

02:00 We heard last night when we were in town at the club that there were about 20 crews, bless

02:05 them there, doing extensive work to stop the spot fires around.

02:11 And now what about Four Winds?

02:12 It's a very popular music festival here on the far south coast.

02:15 Acts come from all over the world to perform there.

02:18 What is the situation there with that popular music venue?

02:21 Yes, as far as we know, the automatic system that the two bills have set up there was active

02:29 and as far as we know it's protected.

02:32 We've got somebody going in to look this morning but the fireys, bless them, did have to go

02:37 in and deal with some spot fires we understand.

02:40 But we're thrilled and actually I'm very heartened by just so many messages, seriously, from

02:45 audience around the world saying this national music venue, thank goodness it's okay.

02:50 How are you feeling today?

02:52 Well, I'm feeling relieved.

02:54 I'm grateful to Bill for what he's done for this system which will help our whole community.

03:00 But I have to say you feel anxious.

03:03 I'm on edge.

03:05 We know there's this northerly change coming.

03:07 As you say, it's not wet yet.

03:10 And you just, uncertainty is a difficult beast to manage.

03:14 So you have to work so hard to stay calm.

03:16 So yeah, I do feel anxious and I feel on edge.

03:20 But I'm relieved.

03:21 It's glad to see that you're safe and well.

03:23 So thank you so much for your time, Sheena.

03:24 Pleasure.

03:25 Thanks for having me.

03:26 Thank you.

03:27 So that was Sheena Balgen.

03:28 She is a Barraga Bay resident.

03:29 We are here in Bermagui.

03:30 Barraga Bay is further south and it has been impacted by that fire which is still at watch

03:35 and act status.

03:37 Now earlier today we also heard from the Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor, Russell Fitzpatrick,

03:41 who told us a bit about what kind of conditions we can expect today in the current situation.

03:46 So here's what he had to say.

03:48 We still need to stay vigilant around it all.

03:51 That's by no means to get blase around it.

03:53 It'll be great if the rain comes and that will assist enormously, but it won't put the

03:57 fire totally out.

03:58 And we've still got mopping.

03:59 Even if we get that rain, we'll still have mopping up.

04:01 And if we get strong winds again, they can blow up very easily.

04:04 So please, everyone stay vigilant.

04:05 Don't get complacent around the whole thing.

04:10 Okay, so we are hoping for this rain to come through and really put an end to this fire.

04:17 But for now, residents in the area are still urged to be vigilant, stay alert, not alarmed.

04:23 We also understand that RFS crews are working their way through the fire ground where they

04:29 can to assess building damage.

04:32 We have heard that it could be in the single digits, the number of properties destroyed,

04:36 but we haven't got a confirmed figure just yet.

04:38 So we'll see how today pans out.

04:40 But it is quite dangerous on the fire ground because of the risk of falling trees.

04:45 So I think crews are doing their best to assess the situation, but there's a lot of people

04:49 that are still looking for answers.

04:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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