NSW is in uncharted territory as bushfires burn across the state, with 15 emergency warnings issued for blazes from the Blue Mountains to the Queensland border, and reports of property damage and people potentially trapped in their homes.
More than 85 fires were burning on Friday night with NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons saying there were reports of “multiple community areas being impacted, loss, damage and destruction”.
As of 9pm local time, 49 of those 85 fires were uncontained, according to NSW RFS.
He said almost 1200 firefighters were on the ground and 70 aircraft had been deployed “to save as many people as possible.”
Earlier he told ABC TV: “It’s a very dynamic, it’s a very volatile and it’s a very dangerous set of circumstances that we’re experiencing.”
“We are in uncharted territory … we’ve never seen this many fires concurrently at emergency warning level.”
MidCoast Mayor David West, who lives in Brimbin, said that in his 73 years he had never seen anything like the fire in his area.
“I’m looking at a sky that’s screaming danger, that’s saying ‘get out of my way, I’m going to kill you’,” he told AAP on Friday night.
“I know that sounds melodramatic but it’s not. This is a fire that’s devouring everything in its path.”
Mr West said he’d heard unconfirmed reports of property loss, and people in the Bobin area who “are really, really – can I tell you, suffering”.
ABC reported that the RFS had received reports of people at several locations being trapped in their homes.
The RFS in a tweet said many people had called for help but the size and speed of fires meant they couldn’t get to everyone.
MidCoast Council deputy mayor Claire Pontin – who lives in nearby Hallidays Point – says the area was “tinder dry”.
“It’s just crispy. In places, you can hear the leaves crunching under your feet.”
It’s thought two homes were damaged or destroyed in the fire burning at Stockyard Flat near Walcha.
Fires around Port Macquarie turned the skies an eerie reddish-orange colour, with many residents taking to social media to post images and video of the “apocalyptic” scene.
The fire danger should lessen over the weekend, although threat levels are forecast to rise again on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Rose Barr says there should be a brief reprieve in fire weather conditions as temperatures cool over the weekend.
Mr Fitzsimmons in an online video said that while conditions were going tobe a little better on Saturday, “there’s so much fire out in the landscape that there’s going to be an extraordinary amount of work with firefighter crews”.