"Everything is gone": Up to 20 properties lost in raging bushfires
Bushfire season has well and truly started, with up to 20 properties being lost in an out-of-control bushfire in the NSW town of Rappville.
The fires have continued to ravage parts of NSW and Queensland, with a fast-moving fire in Laidley, Queensland has forced the evacuation of 60 homes.
In NSW, former ABC worker Carol Duncan has said that her father and his partner have lost “absolutely everything” in the fire in Busby’s Flat.
“My father’s home has been destroyed. Everything is gone. Please help if you can,” she wrote on Twitter.
“He has nothing. He’s been a battler his entire life. And what he did have is now a pile of ashes. I feel utterly helpless.”
From my father. #NSWfires 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/uyQxH4rQ4C
— Carol Duncan (@carolduncan) 8 October 2019
“When I spoke with Dad after they’d taken him to the school, he told me they’d ‘lost everything but the shed’. But I now know that the shed was also incinerated.”
“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,” she said.
Another Rappville resident, Danny Smith, shared his loss.
“I’ve lost the bloody sheds, the house, lost everything.”
“We might have saved the second place but everything else has gone.”
Firefighters trying to battle the blaze are up against strong winds and hot conditions that are expected to continue for several hours.
RFS spokesman Greg Allan said that the conditions aren’t looking to change until later in the week.
“We’re probably not going to see any reprieve until tomorrow,” he told AAP.
“We’ve been seeing very strong westerly winds pushing that fire towards the east, still very high temperatures and very low humidity.”
One home was destroyed in Laidley, with residents saying that it was one of the worst fires they’ve ever seen.
“I’ve lived here all my life, this is one of the worst fires I’ve ever seen,” Joan Body told the Courier Mail.
“We don’t know really until we find our family and friends, if they’re alright.”