BUSHFIRES – NEW SOUTH WALES

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declares state of emergency, as thousands flee South Coast ahead of horror fire weekend

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Original article by Kevin Nyugen, Emma Elsworthy
abc.net au – Page: Online : 3-Jan-20

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared a seven-day state of emergency for NSW as from 9am on 3 January, due to the state’s ongoing bushfires. NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says conditions on 4 January are likely to be worse than those on New Year’s Eve; temperatures are predicted to reach 41 degrees Celsius on the South Coast. A ‘tourist leave zone’ has been declared by the RFS for a 14,000-square-kilometre area between Nowra and the edge of the Victorian border. The RFS has revealed 382 homes were destroyed by fires on the South Coast on New Year’s Eve, bringing to 1,298 the number of homes lost during the current bushfire season.

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NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE

Bushfires: firefighters in scramble to control blazes before heat soars again

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Original article by Stephen Lunn, Kieran Gair, Lachlan Moffet Gray
The Australian – Page: Online : 2-Jan-20

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has declared much of the NSW south coast a ‘Tourist Leave Zone’ on 4 January. The RFS says people staying there should leave by then, while anyone planning to visit the area should not come. RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says fires in the area could be worse than those on 31 December, while NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says people living in the area should prepare for more fatalities. Temperatures in parts of southeast NSW and East Gippsland in Victoria are tipped to exceed 40C on 4 and 5 January, and Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp says 4 January is likely to be another high-risk day for Victoria

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NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE

The million-hectare fire

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Original article by Ean Higgins, Emily Ritchie
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 13-Nov-19

New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has warned that the state’s bushfire situation remains critical, after the ‘catastrophic’ fire danger alert on 12 November. More than 130 fires are still burning across NSW and Queensland, with a number of homes having been damaged or destroyed, while the fires have burnt more than a million hectares of land. Fitzsimmons says the fire risk will remain high during the coming summer due to factors such as the drought and high temperatures.

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NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE

Greens playing with fire

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Original article by Greg Brown, Andrew Clennell, Craig Johnstone, Olivia Caisley, Ean Higgins
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 12-Nov-19

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has attracted criticism for attempting to link the bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland to the major political parties’ climate change polices. National Party leader Michael McCormack has labelled the comments as disgraceful and disgusting, while shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon has accused the Greens of hypocrisy given that they opposed Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme. Meanwhile, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the state’s National Parks Service should have undertaken more backburning before the bushfire season commenced.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, NEW SOUTH WALES. NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG, NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE, SHINE ENERGY

Hundreds of schools to be shut down across Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle as New South Wales faces catastrophic bushfire risk

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Original article by
abc.net au – Page: Online : 12-Nov-19

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared a seven-day state of emergency as many parts of the state face ‘catastrophic’ bushfire conditions on 12 November. Around 600 schools across the state will be closed, along with childcare centres in high-risk areas. The NSW Rural Fire Service states that live embers could travel up to 30 kilometres from fire fronts, while it has warned people that it might not have enough time to warn them about some fires. Transport for NSW is warning people to avoid non-essential travel on roads and public transport.

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NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, TRANSPORT FOR NSW, NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE

Backburning advice ignored during huge fire, inquest told

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Original article by Paul Bibby
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: 5 : 12-Nov-14

Adam Casselden, junior counsel assisting an inquest in the New South Wales (NSW) Coroner’s Court into a January 2013 bushfire, has examined NSW Parks & Wildlife Service senior fire ranger Peter Brookhouse. The witness stated that despite his recommendation against a backburning operation on the day when contacted by Rural Fire Service zone manager Stuart Green, his superiors went ahead anyway and ignored the windy weather conditions

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NEW SOUTH WALES. PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE, CORONER’S COURT (NEW SOUTH WALES)