NSW fire conditions beginning to ease in Mid-North and Central Coast

Weather conditions settle slightly in NSW after weekend of ferocious bushfires

Transcript

00:00It's less than 48 hours since the fire ripped through this small community on the New South

00:08Wales central coast in Kooliwong and obviously this morning conditions not too bad for firefighters

00:16there's not a huge firefighter presence here at the moment but the fire is still smoldering

00:22as we drove in this morning you could see some flames as we drove in so certainly not

00:27out of control but not fully under control it is at advice level here yesterday the premier

00:34Chris Minns visited Kooliwong to see the 16 homes that have been destroyed and this morning

00:40he has been commenting on the tragic death of a firefighter at Narong who died late last

00:48night trying to clear the area of trees a tree fell on the firefighter and the premier Chris

00:55Minns saying that that's an absolute tragedy obviously terrible and a reminder of how difficult

01:02and dangerous this work is and how the people who put their lives on the line to protect lives

01:07and property do an incredible job for us in this state obviously officials are in the process

01:12of contacting that firefighter's family but it's a deeply distressing turn of events and

01:18sad day for New South Wales this morning the premier of New South Wales Chris Minns there as I say he was

01:26hearing Kooliwong yesterday looking at the damage himself fortunately the the positive is that over a

01:33hundred houses were saved the situation here could have been far worse and Emma what are firefighters

01:40expecting today conditions Gemma are much better today temperatures in the high 20s expecting a little

01:48bit hotter again tomorrow but that southerly that kicked up yesterday that's not here today so that

01:55should aid firefighting efforts and they will also be using thermal imaging from the air to look for any

02:01spots that they could try and extinguish as I say not a huge presence at the moment by firefighters

02:07more just a couple of of local residents who are walking back up through the roads it's still an

02:13exclusion zone so residents aren't allowed back to their homes but some residents coming in to collect

02:18some belongings and just looking in dismay at what they're looking at here in terms of the wreckage

02:25and just the fact that this fire just came out of nowhere police are investigating the circumstances of

02:33the fire and we will await further advice from the authorities with regards to that Emma Simpkin

02:39reporting from Kooliwong on the New South Wales central coast