The RFS drove off and left a NSW South Coast couple to manage on their own. The fire escaped and destroyed four houses, burnt through 20,000 hectares and took three months to extinguish.
The Rural Fire Service drove off and left a couple to manage their own hazard reduction burn just hours before the fire escaped into a national park and eventually destroyed four houses on the NSW South Coast, a coronial inquiry has heard.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Ragni Mathur, SC, told the inquiry at Lidcombe Coroners Court on Tuesday that the owners only had two 25-litre drums of water at hand to mop up the fire when the RFS crew left that day, after dealing with a tree that was alight. “It was obviously an active fire ground,” de Mar told the inquiry before Deputy State Coroner Joan Baptie.“There is evidence that there were trees on fire … there were active, ember-generating sources within the fire ground.
A landcruiser-style “category nine” firefighter unit with a pump and up to 600 litres of water would have been needed to “mop up”, ideally with a larger tanker available to replenish water supplies.RFS deputy commissioner Peter McKechnie was repeatedly questioned about the decisions the firefighters made in the days and hours before the fire got out of control, and about the way the RFS assesses and approves hazard reduction burns on private land.
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