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Australia fires live: one dead in NSW and six missing in Victoria in Australian bushfires – latest updates
Australia fires live: one dead in NSW and six missing in Victoria in Australian bushfires – latest updates
(32 minutes later)
NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates
NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates
Here are some of the people Helen Davidson was talking about in her posts, captured by Jess Hromas
The prime minister’s press conference is due to start any minute now.
Scott Morrison will be holding a press conference at 11am I am told.
We updated you a little while ago on the fundraiser Celeste Barber started for the rural fire service reaching $16m. That has been surpassed again.
He is in Canberra
From AAP:Comedian Celeste Barber has raised more than $18m million for fire services battling Australian blazes.An Australian comedian who won over fans with her celebrity parodies on Instagram has helped raise a staggering $18m from 450,000 donations in three days.
[cont from previous post]
Barber, who has 6.4m Instagram followers, drew pledges from as far the UK, US, France, Italy in her bid to raise $20m for the NSW Rural Fire Service.
While we speak, Moey al-Haje and Ali Kourouche roll up with a trailer full of water, food and toiletries. There are cheers.
NSW has raised more than $773,000, surpassing a $500,000 target, in one day.
Al-Haje has had almost no sleep. He was up until 1am getting donations together and then got on the road from Greenacre before dawn.
There is growing global and celebrity support for bushfire fundraising efforts, with reality TV star Kim Kardashian West among those lending support by sharing social media links on how to donate.
He’s kind of excited, he says.
Just below Mt Hotham:
“People just donated like beans, snacks, lady stuff like tampons and pads and everything, water,” he says.
Here is the latest advice on the border fire from the NSW RFS:
“Whatever we could get we just got.
A bush fire is burning north from the Victorian border. The fire is more than 140,000ha and is out of control.
“It’s good to donate, but where’s it going to? People need stuff right now; they’ve lost everything. I think I’ll bring some more animal food next week.”
Current situation
Maddison Elabed tells me they’ve got an enormous collection of donations, including the trucks and vans to bring everything down.
The fire crossed the Victorian border and spread rapidly following a strong southerly change.
“Everything we got was 100% donated and is 100% for the fires.”
The fire is burning south of Eden.
They went to Flemington Markets this morning and loaded up. They spent hours making chicken sandwiches.
The fire has impacted the areas of Wonboyn, Kiah, Narrabarba and surrounds.
They’re all from western Sydney: Auburn, Guilford, Cabramatta, Greenacre.
The fire also spread on its western edge near Burragate.
The reception has been unbelievable, she says.
Building impact assessment teams will be deployed to assess damage to properties.
They’ve been inspired by stories of firefighters finishing a shift only to come back to base and find no food.
Advice
They did a run on Wednesday.
If you are in the area of Wonboyn, Kiah, Narrabarba and surrounds, the fire has moved through this area. Monitor the conditions. Be alert for falling trees and branches.
“When we saw the state of these two firies that were sitting in a car waiting for a food truck to come and it came and it was empty, we were like: you’ve got to be kidding me,” says Melissa Nasr.
If you are in the areas of Burragate and Towamba, monitor changing conditions and remain in place. Seek shelter as the fire approaches and protect yourself from the heat of the fire. A number of roads are blocked and closed. Be alert to embers and spot fires. Be aware of the danger of falling trees and branches.
“God sent us there,” adds Elabed.
If you are in the areas of Wyndham, Rocky Hall, Nethercote, Eden and surrounds, continue to monitor conditions and be prepared to act should conditions change.
“They were about to leave when we rocked up. They’re saying thank you to us, but we’re saying thank you to them.”
The areas of Merimbula, Pambula and surrounds are not under any current threat.
They said it’s an eye-opener going out to fire-affected areas.
This is one of the areas NSW authorities are worried about today.
“I know the world is falling apart too but this is our home. We’re going to do everything we can to keep our home safe. People are out there leaving their families to fight and save us. Anything we can do we are gonna do it.”
The air quality in Canberra is getting no better.
A woman named Margaret Bruce is speaking to the ABC about what happened her Batemans Bay area home on New Year’s:
Woolworths has given an update on which of its stores are open in the fire zones:
Woolworths Merimbula, Bega, Tura Beach and Narooma are open today but will operate limited trading hours due to team availability.
Yesterday conditions were “pretty horrendous”.
Woolworths Moruya is open but stock levels remain low and the store will operate limited hours today.
There were some firefighters with heat stress and heat stroke, and one with minor burns, but he’s back at work today.
Woolworths Ulladulla is open but may need to close early due to team availability.
“We have had some structural losses; we did have reports of structures being under threat in and around Kangaroo Valley. We’ve been trying to ascertain any losses up there.”
Woolworths Vincentia, Nowra and Culburra beach are open today.
Today it’s “looking clear” to send in aerial support, Collins says. They had “so many” out yesterday.
Woolworths Batemans Bay remains closed. We are working to open the store today subject to power, team availability and safe access.
“But we could have had 50 more and still wouldn’t have been able to contain the spread.”
Woolworths Bermagui is likely to remain closed today due to access to the town, power and team availability.
It looked particularly bad at Bundanoon last night. I ask about the group of people who sought to escape during the fire, only to get stuck in the firefront and require an escort out from firefighters. He doesn’t have details about the incident, but says it’s “a really good talking point”.
Woolworths Jindabyne and Tumut have reopened after closing early yesterday due to nearby bushfires.
“We tell people leave early, leaving early is your safest option. Don’t leave it to the last minute. We saw in 2009 in Victoria a 170-odd people killed and a lot of those people were killed in their cars.”
Woolworths Bowral and Mittagong in the Southern Highlands are open.
We’re at Nowra and have just had a briefing about the local situation overnight.
VIC
Brad Collins, public liaison officer with the RFS in Nowra, tells me the night saw a lull after the southerly before it picked up again.
Woolworths Bright has reopened today after closing early yesterday.
“We weren’t expecting the strength of the southerly,” he says. It gusted about 85km/h here in Nowra, and over 100km/h over fire grounds down south.
The cooler conditions today don’t mean this is over, by any means.
“Some of the fire behaviour was terrain-driven as well. Fire runs faster up hill, etcetera etcetera.”
This news clip on Seven Network is still doing the rounds – and for good reason.
Fire was expected to jump the Shoalhaven River and get into the Morton national park but it ran through extraordinarily quickly.
The fire is now in the Wingello area, and that will be split off from the Morton fire from a management point of view. This is partly because the Bundanoon-Exeter flank of the Morton fire may join with the Green Wattle Creek fire.
“It’s absolutely a possibility,” says Collins. “After yesterday I’m not ruling anything out.”
The interview with these people in Eden was just heartbreaking, and one of thousands we are going to hear as the weeks go on.
Adam told the ABC he was “pretty sure I’ve lost my house”.
Watching out for people’s mental health is going to be increasingly important as the fires move on. A lot of these people may intellectually know they have lost their home, but that is not the same as actually seeing what they have lost. Keep checking in on your friends and family as these weeks and months continue.
AAP has also looked at the Victorian forecast:
AAP has an update on the P2 mask filter shortage:
This is happening all over the place, and it is just heartmeltingly lovely how ordinary people are reacting during this emergency.
Australians are so much better than
David Speers then attempts to find out what has changed with the ADF announcement – as in, who will be calling the shots: the states, or the commonwealth, on where and when the defence assets will be deployed.
Linda Reynolds: So that authority still rests with the states and territory, absolutely. What we found – this is an unprecedented natural disaster in terms of scope and defence engagement.
So what we have said to the states and territories and what the prime minister clearly said yesterday is we are ramping up more assets and making it known through our liaison officer network of what the states right down to the local community level can ask for.
Speers: That work, as you said, has been there for a while.
Reynolds: You’re talking over me again.
Speers: I’m trying to establish what changed.
Reynolds: So what that means is that it is still finally the responsibility of the states and territories to ask and coordinate but we are forward positioning and we are making equipment and also activated reservists in these states to make sure the states are very clear on what we can do and we have the people and the resources in location so that they can respond very quickly.
So we’ve now got, for example, with the army, we’ve got specialist medical teams available, engineering teams, transport teams, aerial reconnaissance and also of course evacuation assets.
So it is ultimately still the states’ and territories’ call, but what the prime minister said yesterday is we are being as forward leaning as possible to make sure that we have the maximum amount of resources available when the states ask for it.
That exchange continues:
Speers: I’m not talking about communication. My question, minister, sorry, was about consulting. Wouldn’t you want to consult with the operational chief to make sure this is a necessary step rather than just simply making a decision and communicating it?
Reynolds: Well, David, you are conflating two issues there. The first one is in terms of the decision that the national security committee took yesterday, which was not only the call-out of the reserves, but also the other measures that we announced yesterday. That was done in absolute consultation with the states in terms of what more resources are required.
Speers: So Shane Fitzsimmons was consulted about this?
Reynolds: I said that the state authorities were consulted.
Speers: Shane Fitzsimmons, the fire commissioner, was consulted?
Reynolds: David, with respect, we have liasion officers at all of the impacted state headquarters. We’ve got liasion officers and incident controllers right across New South Wales. We consulted very widely in terms of the resources ...
Speers: This is an important point, minister.
Reynolds: The commissioner said this morning ... You’re talking over me.
Speers: The commissioner said this morning that even the liasion officers you’re referring to weren’t aware of the details.
Reynolds: David, that’s the reason we have the liasion officers out there.
I do acknowledge yesterday that we could have, defence could have worked quicker to push the information out. We acknowledged that yesterday.
We put measures in place to make sure that our defence change chain of command have that information available as soon as possible.
I would say in relation to the commissioner of New South Wales, that that information was passed to the premier. That information was communicated to the state authorities.
David Speers has started his ABC career with an interview with Linda Reynolds. He asks about Shane Fitzsimmons not being told of the ADF announcement ahead of time yesterday.
Speers: What is your reaction or explanation as to why Shane Fitzsimmons, the Rural Fire Service chief in New South Wales, has expressed disappointment and frustration he wasn’t kept in the loop or consulted about this?
Reynolds: Well, David, the first thing I would say is that the national security committee of cabinet met yesterday morning to put together this new suite of measures, not just on behalf of defence but on behalf of the federal government. Straight after that meeting, the prime minister personally contacted each of the impacted premiers to advise them of the measures that we had agreed to take. That was done before we went and made the public announcement.
Speers: Would you not want to consult the guy who’s actually in charge operationally about whether this was a good idea?
Reynolds: Well, the prime minister has been in constant contact with the premiers, daily, in fact, in some cases.
Speers: I’m talking about Shane Fitzsimmons, the fire commissioner.
Reynolds: David, you asked me a question, please allow me to answer it. The prime minister, as is absolutely normal, will let the state leaders know and it is entirely a matter for the state authorities of how they communicate that through their own bureaucracy and their own emergency management processes.
The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, tells the ABC that defence bases between Brisbane and Adelaide are being opened to help house people who have lost their homes in the bushfires.
She also gives an update on where the HMAS Adelaide, which is working to help the HMAS Choules with evacuations:
The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia has released a statement on the “horror and shock” it and its members are feeling, while calling for a coordinated recovery response.
It has also said “enough” to the climate denialist garbage, because it has “endangered us all”.
