Emergency services on Willi Willi Fire | October 17, 2023 | Macleay Argus - video Dailymotion

The Macleay Argus

Mid North Coast Police District and RFS Lower North Coast Zone provide an update on the Willi Willi Fire.

Transcript

00:00 about 10.15pm last night, police were called to a premises, a bushland location on Stoney

00:08 Creek Lane at Temagog where reports were that there was a missing person. Police with the

00:15 support of RFS travelled to that location which you could understand was a high risk

00:20 fire danger area. After walking around for some time, police located a 56 year old male

00:27 deceased, approximately 100 metres from a bulldozer that was also burned. Investigations

00:38 are ongoing now, there's a crime scene in existence and because of the circumstances

00:44 that matter will be referred to the coroner. We do believe that he was perhaps putting

00:49 in some lines to try and prevent the fire but as I say that will be part of the investigation.

00:55 Our job is to protect life and property and if we can we will and as you saw last night

01:00 we went out there. We were very well supported by RFS to provide fire support to the police

01:06 who went out there. The circumstances of where they went into the situation, it was a long

01:12 way off the main road etc but that's their job and they did it and unfortunately that's

01:16 the circumstances that they've come across. The family are devastated as you'd imagine,

01:21 the police have been in contact with the family. We'll make sure we purpose match resource

01:25 welfare and that around the family as we can and make sure the other agencies are involved

01:30 in providing whatever support we can provide to the family. As we come across any structures

01:34 that are reported of being damaged, we will ensure that we go through those properties

01:38 as NSW Police and clear everyone and make sure people are safe. Emergency Operations

01:42 Centre is established now, that's where all the multi-agencies come together to provide

01:47 support to the RFS. There's going to be a number of concerns now with stock. We've got

01:53 people ringing up now about possible to see stock, lack of food for stock, lack of water

01:59 for stock. If I can just ask people if they can ring their local lands on a number which

02:04 I'll provide which is 1300 795 299 and we should be able to get some support to those

02:11 rural people in relation to their stock. At the moment in the Lower North Coast District

02:17 we have two areas of concern. The main one is the Willy Willy Road fire that's commenced

02:22 on Saturday lunchtime. We're still investigating the cause of that fire. It's currently standing

02:29 at about 11,000 hectares, burning on all fronts with about approximately an 80 kilometre perimeter.

02:36 We have crews from out of area, local crews have been working extensively over the last

02:42 few days and putting a great effort in there and going over and beyond and for volunteers

02:47 that's fantastic. We've also had the out of area crews helping us, they're all supported

02:52 with the aviation and heavy plant as well. So yesterday was a really big day with the

02:57 total fire ban day and not very good weather. So we have put a heavy weight of what we call

03:03 a heavy weight of attack on there and we're trying to protect the community the best we

03:07 can. You would have noticed yesterday we went to emergency warning, that was to allow the

03:12 community to be aware and prepare. Last night about 4am we downgraded that to watch and

03:17 act. So we have, at the moment our strategic planners are looking at how best we can contain

03:23 this fire. The fire is expected to move in a north easterly direction towards Willawarra.

03:28 We will have brought in the large air tanker today, so we're looking at that to try and

03:34 do some retardant lines but we also should be mindful with the community, with the dryness

03:39 we need to be sure that the retardant is followed up with really good ground crews. So a lot

03:44 of aviation in the air, a lot of heavy plant, a lot of people. So good work trying to get

03:49 out there, we're moving towards this containment strategy ahead of bad weather predicted or

03:55 worse weather predicted between Saturday and Sunday this week. Some other fires over on

04:00 the coastal side at Crescent Head, there's two there we're watching at the moment along

04:04 Crescent Head Road. So we also have moved our crews out that side as well and we'll

04:10 continue to work on strategies for containment for those two as well. Keep an eye on the

04:14 Hazards Near Me, it's really important if you haven't downloaded your Hazards Near Me

04:18 app that they have it on to get the most up to date information.

04:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Emergency services on Willi Willi Fire | October 17, 2023 | Macleay Argus

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