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A disaster situation is unfolding across NSW and Queensland, with dozens of homes destroyed and one village utterly devastated by bushfires....
15 homes were destroyed in Rappville.(ABC News: Matt Coble)The RFS suspects more properties have been lost in the Ewingar area, near Tenterfield. 'We're working very hard to get that as quickly as. Local NSW and Sydney news and information. Get the latest sport, weather and entertainment as well as best lifestyle.
A disaster situation is unfolding across NSW and Queensland, with dozens of homes destroyed and one village utterly devastated by bushfires.
Firefighters have been battling a blaze near Rappville, south of Casino.Source:News Regional Media
Authorities believe a fire that has destroyed up to 30 homes in northern NSW may have been deliberately lit, described as a truly “bastard act” by a state minister.
Some residents suffered burns when a huge out-of-control bushfire ripped through the rural hamlet of Rappville yesterday afternoon.
The Rural Fire Service believes the blaze started on Friday night in the Bushbys Flat area.
“Our investigations have come back that there was something suspicious that has happened in that area,” a spokesman told reporters today.
“Potentially (it was) deliberately lit.”
Members of Casino Rural Fire Brigade at the Rappville fire defending properties.Source:News Regional Media
NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said anyone who’d put lives at risk would face the full force of the law.
“It really is a bastard act if you are going to put your own community at risk,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was “horrified” to hear the fire was suspicious.
“I’m simply horrified and shocked that anyone would think it’s smart to be lighting any of these fires — I hope that’s not the case,” she said at the RFS headquarters.
Rural Fire Service deputy commissioner Rob Rogers says the blaze wreaked havoc yesterday afternoon ahead of what’s likely to be a “very long summer” of bushfires.
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Mr Rogers said today that two fires — at Drake near Tenterfield and at Busbys Flat near Rappville — had joined together to form one large blaze which has already burned more than 100,000 hectares.
The fire was burning on the Summerland Way at Clearfield, near Rappville.Source:News Regional Media
Crews continue to battle the massive fire as they work to contain it over the coming days.
“We are still using that figure of up to 30 homes across these fires,” Mr Rogers told ABC TV.
“Before these fires, we had already lost around 44 homes in NSW due to fires so far this fire season, and obviously that number could climb significantly from these fires.”
A number of residents were treated for minor burns and breathing difficulties, Mr Rogers said.
Buildings, including the town hall, were destroyed in what one witness described as “cyclonic” conditions.
In an update just after 12pm today, emergency services warned residents around Rappville, Busbys Flat, Coombell, Myrtle Creek, Main Camp and Bungawalbin were told it was still unsafe to go home.
The fires are also devastating the rural towns’ integral railway lines.
In a tweet from earlier today, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the Rappville Rail Bridge had been destroyed.
📷 Some of the aftermath of the devastating bushfires currently burning in Northern NSW.
Stretches of the North Coast rail line have crippled by fire, with the Rappville Rail Bridge destroyed.
Thinking of all those affected by bushfires across the state. pic.twitter.com/RKj00RvMwP
The NSW Rural Fire Service said up to 30 homes and buildings in the village of Rappville, with a population of around 250 people, were destroyed when the fire ripped through the town.
“I’ve lost the bloody sheds, the house, lost everything,” Rappville resident Danny Smith told reporters.
“We might have saved the second place but everything else has gone.”
A house being consumed by the raging bushfire at Rappville near Casino. Picture: ABC News/Matt Coble/TwitterSource:Twitter
John Duncan, 83, also lost his home in the blaze.
His daughter Carol has set up a GoFundMe page to help her father who she says “lost everything except the clothes he was wearing”.
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By this morning the page had raised more than $11,000.
The remaining funds will be donated to help other victims of the fire and help rebuild the entire village, GoFundMe confirmed.
Once the victims have relief, any excess funds will go to the NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers.
Ms Duncan says her father had moved to the area from Canberra after “experiencing the devastating 2004 bushfires and not wanting to go through it again”.
But her father was lucky this time, she believes, after firefighters responded to a tweet asking for advice and went to the home to take him and his partner to safety.
They had been sheltering in a shed at the back of the property.
“So, the RFS people who went and got my Dad and his partner OUT OF THE SHED thanks to Twitter ... saved my Dad’s life,” Ms Duncan said.
More than 13,200 hectares have been burned. The fire danger was downgraded to “watch and act” this morning, however parts of it are still spreading.
There are reports of a number of homes or buildings being destroyed by the fire in the Rappville area. Dangerous fire conditions are expected to continue for several hours. The fire is still spreading. #nswrfs#nswfires
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 8, 2019An evacuation centre has been set up at St Mary’s Catholic College in Casino for those who were forced to flee the Busbys Flat fire.
RFS spokesman Greg Allan told AAP firefighters were not expecting to see a reprieve to the hot and windy conditions fanning the fire until today.
A blaze at Long Gully Road at Drake, which has been burning for five weeks, has destroyed more than 78,000 hectares. The advice level is “watch and act”.
About 21 fires are burning across NSW, and 15 are deemed serious.
At 730 this morning there were 41 bush or grass fires across NSW, with 13 uncontained. Two fires remain at Watch & Act - the Busbys Flat fire west of Casino, and the Long Gully Road fire which impacted on areas around Ewingar yesterday. #nswrfs#nswfirespic.twitter.com/NO8gLF4bXG
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 8, 2019#NSWRFS Building Impact Assessment teams will inspect areas impacted by yesterday's bush fires across northern NSW. At this stage, there appears to be a significant number of homes and other buildings destroyed. We're working to get residents back when safe to do so. #nswfirespic.twitter.com/zyQ2ULKVN6
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— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 8, 2019Firefighters are hoping cooler weather conditions from tomorrow and expected rain on Friday will help with the firefighting effort.
Up north in Queensland, cooler temperatures will begin to ease bushfire conditions across the state’s southeast corner from today, with forecasters even predicting rain by the end of the week.
Temperatures in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, reached 41C on Tuesday as gusty, westerly winds fanned a dangerous bushfire that threatened the township of Thornton.
Residents were told to evacuate as the blaze burned in a northerly direction from the Glen Rock National Park towards Main Camp Creek Road. Residents at nearby Lefthand Branch have been on standby to leave if conditions deteriorate.
Bushfires have been burning across Queensland and NSW.Source:News Regional Media
However, there is some potential relief in sight.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist Vince Rowlands said the fire danger in the southeast corner would drop from severe to very high on Wednesday as a cooler trough starts to push through.
He said some areas could even receive rain by Friday, with falls of up to 40mm possible on Saturday.
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“There is potential there for some relatively good falls,” Mr Rowlands said. However most of the state will remain tinder dry.
On Tuesday afternoon 20 fires were burning across Queensland. Many of these fires were in central Queensland, where the temperatures are not expected to drop until Thursday.
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One blaze was also threatening homes at The Ridge on the Darling Downs, while other fires were being monitored in the state’s north.