Fire service warns of days-long wait to assess damage from NSW south coast blaze

Key PointsA number of homes have been lost on the NSW south coast from a large blaze overnight.Scattered showers and cooler weather have brought the fire risk level down after scorching conditions yesterday.There are fears this bushfire season could be the worst since the summer of 2019/2020.

It will take days to fully assess the damage to homes and property after a bushfire ripped through dense bush on the NSW south coast.

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) has confirmed the loss of properties in the Coolagolite fire, but officials will be unable to send building assessment crews onto the 5200ha fireground until Wednesday afternoon.

Scattered showers and cooler weather have helped bring the fire risk level down after scorching conditions a day earlier.

Work to contain the blaze, southwest of the coastal town of Bermagui, and remove hazards was ongoing, the RFS said.

“We certainly wouldn’t want the (assessment) crews on the ground and having trees falling, for example,” spokeswoman Victoria Quested told AAP.

“So it’s not just a matter of putting the fire out.”

The blaze continues to burn near homes in the Cuttagee, Barragga Bay, Murrah, Bunga and Goalen Head areas after torching an area the size of Sydney Harbour inside 24 hours.

There have been no reports of missing people.

Evacuated residents, including about 65 people put up in caravan parks and motels, were asked to steer clear of the area until it was safe, Bega Valley mayor Russell Fitzpatrick said.

The sight of smoke also triggered mental health concerns nearly four years on from the devastating Black Summer bushfires.

Early in 2020, Bermagui residents were forced to retreat to the water in preparation for evacuation as bushfires surrounded the town in tinderbox conditions.

“We’re aware that these problems may have been laying there from the 2019-20 fires and we want people to seek help,” Fitzpatrick said.

Premier Chris Minns said firefighting crews had been through a tough 24 hours as they worked to protect towns, many of which were full of holidaymakers for the school holidays.

“We’re in October and we’ve found that we’re facing midsummer bushfire conditions in some parts of NSW – it points to a hellish three months,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit the south coast with Minns on Wednesday afternoon to talk with those affected by the most recent blazes.

“I feel for those communities as well, they went through such a difficult time in 2019-20 over that Black Summer and many of the areas that were affected by fires then are burning again,” Albanese said.

Warmer conditions on Thursday are expected to return the fire danger to high for the south coast before risks ease again over the weekend.

“There is reprieve on the horizon in terms of the weather, but we’re not necessarily out of the woods yet,” Quested said.

Conditions also improved in many other parts of NSW as crews battled 63 bush and grass fires.

Total fire bans were in place for the greater Hunter region as well as areas to the north and northwest stretching to the Queensland border.

RFS commissioner Rob Rogers urged residents not to be complacent as the weather cooled since the fire danger remained.

“We know properties were lost, we just don’t know how many and that work will obviously go on this morning,” he told Nine’s Today Show.

“The good news is there are no reports at the moment of anyone missing … but we’ve got to confirm that everybody is OK in those areas because there’s a lot of scattered properties firefighters were struggling to get into.”

There are fears this bushfire season could be the worst in NSW since the summer of 2019/2020. Source: AFP / Saeed Khan

The southerly change that moved through the fireground overnight has brought cooler temperatures, increased humidity and some rain.

Evacuation centres in Bega and Narooma remain in place. Conditions had also improved in many other parts of NSW as crews battled 73 bush and grass fires, 18 of which were yet to be contained, on Wednesday morning.

The Bureau of Meteorology said showers and storms were expected to hit much of the state, although the front was not expected to hit Sydney and areas to the north until the afternoon and evening.

The temperature in Sydney reached 27.9C shortly after noon, while the mercury reached 32.5C at Tocul, north of Newcastle.

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