November 28, 2024 • 15 mins
5 years on from the coast's worst ever firestorm, former RFS District Manager Angus Barnes recalls his actions on that day, and explains why our fire-fighting force is so much better prepared for the unthinkable.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Higher fast South.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Coast, the temperature very celsius sake see humidity and further
in our favorites.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Conditions like that gooday, I'm James fantasy. And this episode
is touching on issues that relate to the Black Summer
bushfires in twenty nineteen twenty twenty. And while it's difficult
for many to take themselves back to that horror summer,
our guest today is a man who led our community
through that major emergency, even though it was beyond what
(00:32):
he or anyone else could ever imagine. These days, you'll
find Angus Barnes sitting behind a desk at Urubadella Shire
Council in Maruya. His new job is as a full
time LIMO that's a local Emergency Management officer where he
supports combat agencies and emergency services, especially in times of disaster.
(00:53):
But up until November twenty twenty three, Angus was the
District manager for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service
or RFS here on the far South coast, and Angus
has seen the worst of it as incident controller during
major fire incidents in the Urubadella and Bega Valley, including
the Black Summer bush Fires to this day, he still
(01:14):
recalls every minute detail of the high cost of that
disaster five summers ago.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uberdella and Buga Valley were probably the worst hit local
government areas in the state. Total area burnt was just
a fraction under six hundred and twenty nine thousand tactares
across both lgos. Nine hundred and seventy four homes lost,
four hundred and eight damaged. But it's also significant to
note that we're in the area that was burnt. Who
spears in two hundred and seventy eight homes saved.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
When we spoke last time, we were talking about the
smoke as well. How far and wide could the smoke
from these fires be seen.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, some satellite images that smoke from the pie is
not only but across the entire state almost circled the world,
and New Zealand certainly capt the three a bit of it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, and these fires started in Queensland in June twenty nineteen.
Can you take us back to the time when you
first heard those bushfires were actually coming toward the far
south coast of New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The first fire I went to was on the fourth
of September. We were working out of Borick in Queensland
and we overflew on the way up there the gn
in the spire that was just getting bigger and bigger,
and then progressively through that summer up until December, I
worked in so father are the state operations, providing support
to incidents that were occurring across the state and locating
(02:32):
resources and getting them there. Now we just watched the
progression of fires marching Steed we southris It impact of
the northern part of Yuba Dalla started on the twenty
sixth of November and shoal Haven in Tarlan New Shower
crossing across the King's Highway of Government Benz on the
eighteenth of December, and that's when that fire stopped being
managed by shoal Haven and started the section of the
(02:53):
fire started being managed by Yubadella on fire also extended
into the Valley Road area in Glenlane Toleoring. We had
our first fire in the year of a Dolla on
the twenty sixth December up on Aurlin Road, I mean
the Badger fire that was burning and snowing and arrow
and fos in the Curro Schools area and the Institutor
(03:15):
Valley Road fire all came in to the far South
coast on the thirty first December twenty nine, year zero.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It was on New Year's Eve in twenty nineteen. I
remember down here in Marimbula the day the sky turned
orange with smoke everywhere. That's also the day that you
took off work to go back to your home in
Surf Beach to defend it. What did you find there?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, I didn't actually get to loop and to go
to the office. We got our emergency warning at six
o'clock in the morning, and by nine o'clock we were
surrounded by fire, and so was the neighborhood. It's lots
of my neighbors lost their homes. We were lucky enough
to save ours, one of the work, one of life
and kids themselves, but there we also sustained some losses.
So I lost the shed, plan, cruiser and boat. Up
(04:00):
At the end of the day, we were just happy
to order our civil life. There's not a lot you
can do on days like lead in regards to making
decisions and impacting what happens. Because the scale of the
fire was so great, we had no idea where it was,
and they were not enough fire trucks to go everywhere,
So I chose to stay and start getting ready to
defend because only that it was coming.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Can you just talk us through that a little bit,
how you defended your property and what were you seeing?
What could you say at the.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Time, because I lived at the rural property when we
did the development to build our house, we were helping
them out into include a water tank with some dedicated
firefighting water. So of firefighting pump it up to that
tank and was down in the house of water and
it started on gusing the shed within conditions up on
the top of the whole mle sheds. But too dangerous
to stay there, so we went into the house, spread
(04:46):
water all over the house, watched the fire burn around
us until the high fighting pump burnt. Just use buckets
to order around the bar. I went to my first
five at the volunteer in nineteen over three, and only
forty years I'd never ever seen five behaved your life
about I've never ever seen a fire travel thirty six
kilometers through mountains terrain overnight. It's just unheard of. The
(05:07):
weather conditions which is really freaking that day. But that's
just a combination of a lot of things out lots
of years of drought, your loads a normal or weather.
One of the volunteers that was the house next sort
of my place told me afterwards the heat signatures that
the fire was pushing ahead of it as it came,
got the temperatures up to fifty three degree celsius. Safe,
said humidity, and blow one hundred and further in kilometers
(05:29):
an hour. There is nothing you can do like the
conditions like that.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And yet there were stories of people like yourself that
managed to save your your properties in certain areas. Just
going back to your story, so how long were you
preparing and fighting around your place and how long was
that before you knew that that you know your place
was safe.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We got the message at six in the morning, so
I was looking up a company everything. By about six
thirty my son was on the roof of the shed
putting tennis balls in there, said we can flood the gunners.
When the first spot flight came over, of God, he
probably about eight thirty in the morning, and then by
nine we were fully involved intending the house, and by
(06:10):
ten minutes before grown pass us. Then when the suddenly arrived,
the wife and threw sons behind. When they were all
actively helping so and iron looked like it's the water
put spots as they did getting stuff and this is
the important part of our preparing for a fire, getting
anything combustible away from the house and the cane lands
that was on the ground. Who got tucked down the
fihill all away from the house and moved the cars away.
(06:31):
We got rid of things off the core, door mats
and stuff. Anything that was combustible was moved away from
the house.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Just some of the key learnings Angus Barnes and Midst
probably saved his family's lives. More of our conversation with
Angus soon, including the need to bolster RFS volunteers so
our firefighting force is ready should the unthinkable happen again.
My heart fast out coast, higher, fast out coast, Yet
(07:04):
a I'm James fantasy. Nothing brings home the enormity of
a major disaster more than the loss of life and
we lost seven people in the Black Summer bush fires,
but also the mega insurance bills bring such a catastrophe
into focus. A report from twenty twenty twenty one by
the Insurance Council of Australia revealed more than three hundred
(07:26):
thousand insurance claims, with almost five and a half billion
dollars were paid out across the East Coast of Australia.
Eighty seven percent of those claims were personal, with thirteen
percent relating to losses by commercial businesses. Angus Barnes was
District Manager and incident Controller with the RFS Far South
Coast during the Black Summer bush fires. He says planning
(07:48):
for the twenty twenty season started out with the usual
predictions of how resources would be managed, but absolutely no
one could have predicted what was ahead, let alone the
pandemic that was to gript the nation so soon after.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
In a normal PI season, it starts around Augustuff on
the north coast and the southern half is Southwest goes
up to help and then as the rainy season starts
to move down the coast. When I was in the
central part of the state, of the southern part of
the state, the north northern part of the state comes
down to help. In that year, everywhere was on fire
at the same time, which is why I had struck
(08:23):
tlan to fire fighters from Queensland and from South Australia.
We had people every at one stage. Flight term is
fire trucks and basically a stroke fram coordinator. I had
twenty three strike flans kempt in the room that once,
but there's just a massive amount of resource and they
were from all over the country.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
It's been five years now. How has the RFS changed
and developed over that time?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
There was a parliamentary priory run by form my Assistant
Commissioner flue Stoveland. He made seventy six recommendations about how
to improve and prepare for sides about kale. Again, the
state equivalent dropped at all of them, and a lot
of them were around technology and boarding the resources of
the RFS. So there's a lot more equipment learning put
(09:04):
into trucks as greater capacity for communications and most of
the bucks will have access to skyl and pop Is
radio networks, so they can still communicate and they can
still identify where they are. There's now a tracking system
attached to the trucks, so from the fire control Center
incident management team from MOLTIL where the crews are in
(09:24):
chase some good changes that picks them in harm's way
and they can get them out of the way. A
lot more effectively has been upbroads to personal protective equipment
UPLOADS to helmets. There's been a real lot of work
done to better prepare firefighters, and I think one of
the other important things is the r first recognized and
would intact those fives had on their members, and they've
employed a large termal practitioners to support members through the
(09:49):
recovery from THETI seism and preparing for next time they
have to go out the back.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
In twenty nineteen, smaller brigades like Neticuat for example, only
had six RFS volunteers, with four of them over the
age of sixty. What has the RFS done to boost
volunteer numbers and how are they looking across the region today.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's not something that the RFS fokes credit for. It's
actually the community that pulses the numbers regades. So post
fires there was a large uptake in membership. The challenge
was that we had two weeks and COVID lock here
speaking people interested. So there's been a work really done
in training the new recruits and it has saying a
(10:32):
lot of brigades get more members, but that wasn't proven
by the RFS. That was driven by the community.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
What lessons have been learned about fire preparedness and response
from those black summer bush fires, and how are they
being applied to future strategies. I mean, if if it
happened again, what would be done differently.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I think one of the most important things that I
learned and some of my colleagues weren't, is the need
to impress on the community emergency of listening to a
message just from combat agencies and if they so believe, believe,
don't put it there. There are a lot of people
who were uncomfortable and affected by the prius and had
to take shelter in evacuation centers. Had they heard it
(11:10):
the hornings earlier and relocated out of the area, they
may not have had that terrible experience. It's also been
a lot more work done in their asset protection zone maintenance,
the RFS ALUDS this Floe Management Committee which is currently
working on the next generation risk plans. So there's been
a lot more analysis of where risks and how it's
(11:31):
better manage it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Even though it happened five years ago, for those of
us that were here, it doesn't seem like it was
that long ago. Some people still processing it and want
to talk through it. What are some of the options
out there for people who do want.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
To talk anyone who's still struggling with the trauma of it,
I'd recommend seeing it truth being getting some assistances in
reuts of their own mental health because it did impact
a lot of people, and a lot of people still
have heightened levels of anxiety. I think it's probably also
important to consider that that was a rarity. We've never
seen colt behavior like that in this country, since it's
(12:06):
not the new norm, and that's really important that people
except that they bore behavior on that day. It was
not the new norm. We've had fire scenes that haven't
done anything like that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I mean, as you'd be where many volunteers, particularly volunteers,
but also just people in the community faced immense trauma
during and after the fires. But COVID lockdowns really did
disrupt that, didn't it, because it was kind of the
fires and then instantly we were in the lockdown.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So we revoked the Section forty four emergency decoration for
the class the coast on the fourth of March twenty twenty,
and within fourteen days we're in lockdown. So it's part
of my royal was the in cir controller was to
look after the world of rfist members and we'd arranged
for teams of critical and support personnel would come down
from other parts of the state to go out and
visit every gay and start talking to the members and
(12:54):
helping them unpapitable. But because everyone was in lockdown and
they didn't get to do that. And then there was
cases where some members who yeah, four fives frantically for
several days when now locked in the home, surrounded by
a devastation. You know, I had one volute teatur and
I really wanted to do is sit over the.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Trough that had on it because all the all the
leaves had burned.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, because the had to tends through the area of
that he lived. But there was no vegetational like there
was just the trees. There's no leaves on them and
nothing on the ground except Ford has this That was
the really hard part for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Just lastly, Angus, what's your message to the people of
the Far South Coast given the five year anniversary and
ahead of this summer so bit complacent.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Seek information from the Rule of by Service website on
how to prepare properties, monitor the hazards near me app
so you know what's going on in the local area
and listen to the warnings that come out from combat agencies,
and it's not just via and we're talking about a
hotter and wetter than average summer. We could experience flush
flooding again like we did straight after the bills. So
(13:56):
I come in smells. Need to be very aware that
there's a potential for a variety of different natural possessors,
not just for us, but prepare early, don't believer till
the last minute, and have a plan.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Angus Barnes there from Eurybdella Shire Council, a guy the
community needs in its corner as we head into another summer,
hopefully a safe one. Now the Hazards near Me app
is something everyone should have on their smartphone and of
course the RFS bangs on about having a bushfire survival plan,
but every household needs one. Eurebdella Shire Council will be
(14:30):
holding a fires Out commemoration event for the Black Summer
Anniversary on Tuesday, the fourth of March twenty twenty five
at its memorial in the forecourt of the Council chambers
in Maria. Everyone is welcome. At the time of recording
a Bigger Valley Shire Council spokesperson told US. There are
no plans to hold a similar event down south, but
(14:50):
now Russell Fitzpatrick will be issuing a statement. That's all
for now on Iheartfar So South Coast, proudly supported by
the new South Wales Government's our final episode for twenty
twenty four will be back in the new year. Thanks
so much for joining us. I'm James Fantasy. Catch you
next time.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I Heart Fast South Coast
Higher fast South.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Coast, the temperature very celsius sake see humidity and further
in our favorites.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Conditions like that gooday, I'm James fantasy. And this episode
is touching on issues that relate to the Black Summer
bushfires in twenty nineteen twenty twenty. And while it's difficult
for many to take themselves back to that horror summer,
our guest today is a man who led our community
through that major emergency, even though it was beyond what
(00:32):
he or anyone else could ever imagine. These days, you'll
find Angus Barnes sitting behind a desk at Urubadella Shire
Council in Maruya. His new job is as a full
time LIMO that's a local Emergency Management officer where he
supports combat agencies and emergency services, especially in times of disaster.
(00:53):
But up until November twenty twenty three, Angus was the
District manager for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service
or RFS here on the far South coast, and Angus
has seen the worst of it as incident controller during
major fire incidents in the Urubadella and Bega Valley, including
the Black Summer bush Fires to this day, he still
(01:14):
recalls every minute detail of the high cost of that
disaster five summers ago.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uberdella and Buga Valley were probably the worst hit local
government areas in the state. Total area burnt was just
a fraction under six hundred and twenty nine thousand tactares
across both lgos. Nine hundred and seventy four homes lost,
four hundred and eight damaged. But it's also significant to
note that we're in the area that was burnt. Who
spears in two hundred and seventy eight homes saved.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
When we spoke last time, we were talking about the
smoke as well. How far and wide could the smoke
from these fires be seen.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, some satellite images that smoke from the pie is
not only but across the entire state almost circled the world,
and New Zealand certainly capt the three a bit of it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, and these fires started in Queensland in June twenty nineteen.
Can you take us back to the time when you
first heard those bushfires were actually coming toward the far
south coast of New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
The first fire I went to was on the fourth
of September. We were working out of Borick in Queensland
and we overflew on the way up there the gn
in the spire that was just getting bigger and bigger,
and then progressively through that summer up until December, I
worked in so father are the state operations, providing support
to incidents that were occurring across the state and locating
(02:32):
resources and getting them there. Now we just watched the
progression of fires marching Steed we southris It impact of
the northern part of Yuba Dalla started on the twenty
sixth of November and shoal Haven in Tarlan New Shower
crossing across the King's Highway of Government Benz on the
eighteenth of December, and that's when that fire stopped being
managed by shoal Haven and started the section of the
(02:53):
fire started being managed by Yubadella on fire also extended
into the Valley Road area in Glenlane Toleoring. We had
our first fire in the year of a Dolla on
the twenty sixth December up on Aurlin Road, I mean
the Badger fire that was burning and snowing and arrow
and fos in the Curro Schools area and the Institutor
(03:15):
Valley Road fire all came in to the far South
coast on the thirty first December twenty nine, year zero.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
It was on New Year's Eve in twenty nineteen. I
remember down here in Marimbula the day the sky turned
orange with smoke everywhere. That's also the day that you
took off work to go back to your home in
Surf Beach to defend it. What did you find there?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, I didn't actually get to loop and to go
to the office. We got our emergency warning at six
o'clock in the morning, and by nine o'clock we were
surrounded by fire, and so was the neighborhood. It's lots
of my neighbors lost their homes. We were lucky enough
to save ours, one of the work, one of life
and kids themselves, but there we also sustained some losses.
So I lost the shed, plan, cruiser and boat. Up
(04:00):
At the end of the day, we were just happy
to order our civil life. There's not a lot you
can do on days like lead in regards to making
decisions and impacting what happens. Because the scale of the
fire was so great, we had no idea where it was,
and they were not enough fire trucks to go everywhere,
So I chose to stay and start getting ready to
defend because only that it was coming.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Can you just talk us through that a little bit,
how you defended your property and what were you seeing?
What could you say at the.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Time, because I lived at the rural property when we
did the development to build our house, we were helping
them out into include a water tank with some dedicated
firefighting water. So of firefighting pump it up to that
tank and was down in the house of water and
it started on gusing the shed within conditions up on
the top of the whole mle sheds. But too dangerous
to stay there, so we went into the house, spread
(04:46):
water all over the house, watched the fire burn around
us until the high fighting pump burnt. Just use buckets
to order around the bar. I went to my first
five at the volunteer in nineteen over three, and only
forty years I'd never ever seen five behaved your life
about I've never ever seen a fire travel thirty six
kilometers through mountains terrain overnight. It's just unheard of. The
(05:07):
weather conditions which is really freaking that day. But that's
just a combination of a lot of things out lots
of years of drought, your loads a normal or weather.
One of the volunteers that was the house next sort
of my place told me afterwards the heat signatures that
the fire was pushing ahead of it as it came,
got the temperatures up to fifty three degree celsius. Safe,
said humidity, and blow one hundred and further in kilometers
(05:29):
an hour. There is nothing you can do like the
conditions like that.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And yet there were stories of people like yourself that
managed to save your your properties in certain areas. Just
going back to your story, so how long were you
preparing and fighting around your place and how long was
that before you knew that that you know your place
was safe.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We got the message at six in the morning, so
I was looking up a company everything. By about six
thirty my son was on the roof of the shed
putting tennis balls in there, said we can flood the gunners.
When the first spot flight came over, of God, he
probably about eight thirty in the morning, and then by
nine we were fully involved intending the house, and by
(06:10):
ten minutes before grown pass us. Then when the suddenly arrived,
the wife and threw sons behind. When they were all
actively helping so and iron looked like it's the water
put spots as they did getting stuff and this is
the important part of our preparing for a fire, getting
anything combustible away from the house and the cane lands
that was on the ground. Who got tucked down the
fihill all away from the house and moved the cars away.
(06:31):
We got rid of things off the core, door mats
and stuff. Anything that was combustible was moved away from
the house.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Just some of the key learnings Angus Barnes and Midst
probably saved his family's lives. More of our conversation with
Angus soon, including the need to bolster RFS volunteers so
our firefighting force is ready should the unthinkable happen again.
My heart fast out coast, higher, fast out coast, Yet
(07:04):
a I'm James fantasy. Nothing brings home the enormity of
a major disaster more than the loss of life and
we lost seven people in the Black Summer bush fires,
but also the mega insurance bills bring such a catastrophe
into focus. A report from twenty twenty twenty one by
the Insurance Council of Australia revealed more than three hundred
(07:26):
thousand insurance claims, with almost five and a half billion
dollars were paid out across the East Coast of Australia.
Eighty seven percent of those claims were personal, with thirteen
percent relating to losses by commercial businesses. Angus Barnes was
District Manager and incident Controller with the RFS Far South
Coast during the Black Summer bush fires. He says planning
(07:48):
for the twenty twenty season started out with the usual
predictions of how resources would be managed, but absolutely no
one could have predicted what was ahead, let alone the
pandemic that was to gript the nation so soon after.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
In a normal PI season, it starts around Augustuff on
the north coast and the southern half is Southwest goes
up to help and then as the rainy season starts
to move down the coast. When I was in the
central part of the state, of the southern part of
the state, the north northern part of the state comes
down to help. In that year, everywhere was on fire
at the same time, which is why I had struck
(08:23):
tlan to fire fighters from Queensland and from South Australia.
We had people every at one stage. Flight term is
fire trucks and basically a stroke fram coordinator. I had
twenty three strike flans kempt in the room that once,
but there's just a massive amount of resource and they
were from all over the country.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
It's been five years now. How has the RFS changed
and developed over that time?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
There was a parliamentary priory run by form my Assistant
Commissioner flue Stoveland. He made seventy six recommendations about how
to improve and prepare for sides about kale. Again, the
state equivalent dropped at all of them, and a lot
of them were around technology and boarding the resources of
the RFS. So there's a lot more equipment learning put
(09:04):
into trucks as greater capacity for communications and most of
the bucks will have access to skyl and pop Is
radio networks, so they can still communicate and they can
still identify where they are. There's now a tracking system
attached to the trucks, so from the fire control Center
incident management team from MOLTIL where the crews are in
(09:24):
chase some good changes that picks them in harm's way
and they can get them out of the way. A
lot more effectively has been upbroads to personal protective equipment
UPLOADS to helmets. There's been a real lot of work
done to better prepare firefighters, and I think one of
the other important things is the r first recognized and
would intact those fives had on their members, and they've
employed a large termal practitioners to support members through the
(09:49):
recovery from THETI seism and preparing for next time they
have to go out the back.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
In twenty nineteen, smaller brigades like Neticuat for example, only
had six RFS volunteers, with four of them over the
age of sixty. What has the RFS done to boost
volunteer numbers and how are they looking across the region today.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's not something that the RFS fokes credit for. It's
actually the community that pulses the numbers regades. So post
fires there was a large uptake in membership. The challenge
was that we had two weeks and COVID lock here
speaking people interested. So there's been a work really done
in training the new recruits and it has saying a
(10:32):
lot of brigades get more members, but that wasn't proven
by the RFS. That was driven by the community.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
What lessons have been learned about fire preparedness and response
from those black summer bush fires, and how are they
being applied to future strategies. I mean, if if it
happened again, what would be done differently.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I think one of the most important things that I
learned and some of my colleagues weren't, is the need
to impress on the community emergency of listening to a
message just from combat agencies and if they so believe, believe,
don't put it there. There are a lot of people
who were uncomfortable and affected by the prius and had
to take shelter in evacuation centers. Had they heard it
(11:10):
the hornings earlier and relocated out of the area, they
may not have had that terrible experience. It's also been
a lot more work done in their asset protection zone maintenance,
the RFS ALUDS this Floe Management Committee which is currently
working on the next generation risk plans. So there's been
a lot more analysis of where risks and how it's
(11:31):
better manage it.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Even though it happened five years ago, for those of
us that were here, it doesn't seem like it was
that long ago. Some people still processing it and want
to talk through it. What are some of the options
out there for people who do want.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
To talk anyone who's still struggling with the trauma of it,
I'd recommend seeing it truth being getting some assistances in
reuts of their own mental health because it did impact
a lot of people, and a lot of people still
have heightened levels of anxiety. I think it's probably also
important to consider that that was a rarity. We've never
seen colt behavior like that in this country, since it's
(12:06):
not the new norm, and that's really important that people
except that they bore behavior on that day. It was
not the new norm. We've had fire scenes that haven't
done anything like that.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I mean, as you'd be where many volunteers, particularly volunteers,
but also just people in the community faced immense trauma
during and after the fires. But COVID lockdowns really did
disrupt that, didn't it, because it was kind of the
fires and then instantly we were in the lockdown.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So we revoked the Section forty four emergency decoration for
the class the coast on the fourth of March twenty twenty,
and within fourteen days we're in lockdown. So it's part
of my royal was the in cir controller was to
look after the world of rfist members and we'd arranged
for teams of critical and support personnel would come down
from other parts of the state to go out and
visit every gay and start talking to the members and
(12:54):
helping them unpapitable. But because everyone was in lockdown and
they didn't get to do that. And then there was
cases where some members who yeah, four fives frantically for
several days when now locked in the home, surrounded by
a devastation. You know, I had one volute teatur and
I really wanted to do is sit over the.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Trough that had on it because all the all the
leaves had burned.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, because the had to tends through the area of
that he lived. But there was no vegetational like there
was just the trees. There's no leaves on them and
nothing on the ground except Ford has this That was
the really hard part for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Just lastly, Angus, what's your message to the people of
the Far South Coast given the five year anniversary and
ahead of this summer so bit complacent.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Seek information from the Rule of by Service website on
how to prepare properties, monitor the hazards near me app
so you know what's going on in the local area
and listen to the warnings that come out from combat agencies,
and it's not just via and we're talking about a
hotter and wetter than average summer. We could experience flush
flooding again like we did straight after the bills. So
(13:56):
I come in smells. Need to be very aware that
there's a potential for a variety of different natural possessors,
not just for us, but prepare early, don't believer till
the last minute, and have a plan.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Angus Barnes there from Eurybdella Shire Council, a guy the
community needs in its corner as we head into another summer,
hopefully a safe one. Now the Hazards near Me app
is something everyone should have on their smartphone and of
course the RFS bangs on about having a bushfire survival plan,
but every household needs one. Eurebdella Shire Council will be
(14:30):
holding a fires Out commemoration event for the Black Summer
Anniversary on Tuesday, the fourth of March twenty twenty five
at its memorial in the forecourt of the Council chambers
in Maria. Everyone is welcome. At the time of recording
a Bigger Valley Shire Council spokesperson told US. There are
no plans to hold a similar event down south, but
(14:50):
now Russell Fitzpatrick will be issuing a statement. That's all
for now on Iheartfar So South Coast, proudly supported by
the new South Wales Government's our final episode for twenty
twenty four will be back in the new year. Thanks
so much for joining us. I'm James Fantasy. Catch you
next time.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I Heart Fast South Coast
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