Relief and anger in Balmoral, the bushfire village that ran out of water
Under attack from multiple fires running at them
from different directions, the firefighters in Balmoral ran out of water.
The New South Wales southern highlands village of
about 400 people was hit on Wednesday, smashed five times on Thursday and
endured a horrific “quiet day” on Friday. Then Saturday came.
Conditions were forecast as catastrophic. The focus
was on saving lives and as many properties as possible. Stopping the Green
Wattle Creek fire wasn’t really an option.
“I held a community meeting on Friday and was very
honest about what I thought was going to happen,” says the village Rural Fire
Service brigade captain, Brendon O’Connor.
After that night and the next day, the majority of
people were gone. Those that stayed were pretty well set up and defended their
homes. I’m so glad they did.”
As Saturday morning warmed up, reaching temperatures
above 40C, the fire “had a massive run from the west”. Another front came from
the west, then from the east, then from the south, sending flames 200m above
the treetops.
“Everything that was already burning was burning
even more, everywhere you looked was burning,” O’Connor said.
“It’s a miracle. The firefighters that were here,
they were … ” O’Connor stops and takes a deep breath, apologising.
“Not only were they fighting for their own lives,
they were fighting for this community.”
At one point they ran out of water.
“We’re on tank water here,” he says. “We were
desperately trying to get more water into us, desperately calling for more to
come in. A member from another brigade spoke to his boss about getting another
truck into us really quick.
“That company saved a lot of homes.”
He says again and again, the firefighters stared
down something they have never come up against before.
“Praise the
Lord,” O’Connor says. “I’m not a very religious person. But the Lord looked
after us. Twenty years fighting fires, I’ve never seen anything like this.
“Not when you’re being hit from two flanks at the
same time. They just closed in and clashed us in the middle.”
The adrenalin of the past week is wearing off.
Residents have been offered counselling by the RFS and O’Connor says they will
be using it.
He is disappointed in government, saying no one has
come in, save for the upper house MP Lou Amato who lives in the village and who
has been “sensational”.
“We really haven’t seen anybody else, other than the
volunteers and media,” he says.
“No
representatives from the Wingecarribee council. We had representatives from the
Wollondilly council, which was appreciated.
On Sunday the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and
the prime minister, Scott Morrison, visited an evacuation centre in Picton,
20km from Balmoral.
“I know [politicians] said in the media they’d come
to ground zero, but they were 20km away. No one from the state government has
come in offering support, let alone federal,” O’Connor says.
He says 18 houses – more than 10% of the village –
are gone, and 90% of the surrounding bush. O’Connor says he got the most sleep
he’s had in a while on Sunday night – two and a half hours. Like many other
Balmoral residents who still have their home, he has opened the doors to a
family who are not so lucky.
Asked what people can do to help, O’Connor says they
need funding and policy change. He isn’t pointing fingers, but says this could
have been prevented if the land was managed better.
“People need to help us as well because funding has
been drastically cut across all the services,” he says.
“To the RFS just before the season, to National
Parks and Wildlife.”
“I know they want to talk about climate –Australia
is a hot country – but to cut such essential and crucial services. It’s like
taking away the police or ambulance. They’re essential.
“We’ve got these great resources, with the planes
and everything else, but certain policies, like hazard reductions, they have to
change.
“I’m not pointing the finger at anyone but it has to
change. We’ve been fighting fires since the beginning of winter. Everyone’s
exhausted.”
