When a local resident returned to his property on Friday afternoon, his home on the coastal fringe was encircled by a massive cloud of smoke. Within twenty-four hours later, two houses on his street were destroyed, and the nearby woodland would be reduced to blackened skeletal remains.
The community of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a devastating event after a veteran firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was hit by a collapsing tree. This signals a “foreboding start” to the fire season.
A total of four homes have been destroyed in the broader Bulahdelah area, comprising two on Emu Creek Road, where Morgan lives, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.
“It's beyond description,” Morgan stated. “My dogs stayed right by me, it was frightening.”
Bulahdelah is a common pause on the Pacific Highway for holidaymakers on their way up the coastal region to coastal destinations such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.
On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was blanketed in thick, orange smoke. Aircraft conducting water drops circled above, assisting firefighters on the ground who were attempting to quash a blaze that had burnt 4,000 hectares since Friday.
Passing trucks slowed to observe road markers and warning signs, the scorched trees and ash-covered ground on each side of the highway evidence of how far the fire had ravaged the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It was still at a 'watch and act' alert level on Monday evening.
In Bulahdelah, though, it would seem like a typical day if not for the helicopters circling overhead and acrid odor lingering in the air.
A refueling point for aircraft has been set up at the town’s showground, transforming it into a base for around 300 firefighters and volunteers who have travelled from across the state to help.
On Monday afternoon, water bottles were being unloaded from trucks and sweets were being packed into zip lock bags. One firefighter estimated that they needed a water bottle every 20 minutes when on the frontline.
Billows of smoke were continuing to emit from smoldering patches on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that follows a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.
On a fence post outside a burnt property, a charred teddy bear remained pinned to the log, complete with a Christmas hat.
Further along, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a small area of green surrounding his house the sole remnant of how the landscape used to look. Against the odds, his property was spared, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.
He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, warning him “you have roughly 30 minutes and then a fire’s going to hit”. His prediction was accurate.
“We doused the buildings and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “panic”. “I thought, ‘this is overwhelming’,” he said. “But I refused to leave.”
Thankfully, firefighters surrounded the house, and managed to save it. The bushfire moved through in about half an hour, with a sound resembling “a thunderous blaze”.
Morgan, who has lived in the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land so dry.
“We used to get rain every week,” he said. “We’ve never had fires like this. But you must accept the challenges with the rewards.”
On the same street, Jeff Curley was looking after his friend’s property which had also mostly been spared Saturday’s blaze, except for a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had been reduced to ashes.
“I am very familiar with this area,” he said. “A few years ago a fire almost approached a nearby ridge and that was pretty scary then, but the wind changed.
“The dryness is extreme now. The fire approached from all directions, and the firies pretty much saved it [the property].”
This experience wasn’t new for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires came through in 2019.
“You hear reports say, ‘The speed was unbelievable’,” he said. “It seems distant, and all of a sudden it's upon you. I know what it’s like. I told my friend to just get out, and he did.”
Kirsty Channon, public information officer for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from various services had come from “right up and down the coast” to assist in the firefighting operation and had done an “outstanding job” protecting houses from being destroyed.
She said all agencies had “pulled together” after the death of one of their own.
“The firefighting community is a close-knit group,” she said. “However, the danger is not over.
“There have been instances of the Pacific Highway open and close a few times, the fire spot across the road. It’s still not contained, it will continue to grow.”
Channon said work in the immediate future would center on the small community of Nerong, which was anticipated to be impacted by the Pacific Highway blaze on Monday evening. Authorities advised locals to evacuate if unprepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.
“Little fires are popping up from storm activity a few days ago,” she said.
“Tomorrow’s weather is the mid-thirties with shifting winds, and that has been difficult - wind changes direction in the area.”
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