NSW sky turns orange as Australian bushfire death toll rises

UPDATE: Authorities have urged NSW residents not to be complacent because the worst is yet to come as a dozen bushfires burn at emergency warning level across southern parts of the State.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Saturday evening warned people facing extreme bushfires: “We are now in a position where we are saying to people it’s not safe to move, it’s not safe to leave these areas.”

“We are in for a long night and I make no bones about that,” she said from the NSW Rural Fire Service headquarters in Sydney.

“We are still yet to hit the worst of it.”

The situation is “very volatile” with southerly winds expected to reach up to 80km/h as a change sweeps up the coast from the Victorian border.

It’s not expected to reach Sydney until close to midnight.

Some 150 fires are burning across NSW with half uncontained. A dozen are at emergency warning level in southern NSW while eight are at “watch and act”.

RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the worst of the weather was yet to eventuate.

“It’s a very dangerous few hours given the amount of emergency alerts that are out there,” he said just before 5pm AEDT.

Some 3600 firefighters are on the ground battling blazes while hundreds of others have been pre-positioned to tackle any new outbreaks.

Mr Fitzsimmons said some large fires were generating their own thunderstorms which could generate cyclonic-type winds.

In some areas, firefighters had been withdrawn for their own safety.

“Under these conditions suppression is unachievable,” the RFS commissioner said.

“The focus becomes saving lives and saving property as much as we can.”

Mr Fitzsimmons said he would be surprised if homes weren’t destroyed before the night was over.

Emergency warnings are in place for fires in the Snowy Monaro and Snowy Valley regions as well as on the South Coast and at the 268,000-hectare Green Wattle Creek blaze south-west of Sydney.

A dangerous fire-generated thunderstorm has formed over the Currowan fire between Nowra and Batemans Bay which could spark new blazes.

Canberra and the western Sydney suburb of Penrith on Saturday broke temperature records that had stood for 80 years.

The mercury climbed to 43.6C in Canberra and 48.9C in Penrith — a new record for the Sydney basin, beating the previous mark of 47.8C recorded in Richmond in 1939.

The previous Canberra record was 42.8C at the now-closed Acton observation site in 1939.

Hospitals in Batlow, Pambula and Tumut were evacuated as were healthcare facilities in Tumbarumba and Delegate.

Regional Express airline suspended all South Coast services on Saturday morning due to the extreme bushfire conditions.

Liberal Bega MP Andrew Constance — who planned to defend his home on Saturday — said the region could be “smashed”.

A Statewide total fire ban is in place on Saturday as is a week-long state of emergency — the third in as many months.

A Statewide fire ban has also been issued for Sunday “due to forecast warm and windy conditions”.

Eight people, including a firefighter, have died in NSW since Monday. Another man, seriously burnt in a bushfire in November, died in hospital on Sunday.

SKIES TURN ORANGE

Residents on NSW’s far south coast are anxiously waiting as burned leaves fall from an orange sky as the national death toll from the bushfires reaches 23.

Hundreds of people fled to an evacuation centre at the Narooma Leisure Centre as conditions worsened on Saturday afternoon as forecast by authorities.

The Narooma sky has turned orange, but residents Sally and Rick Illes say conditions aren’t as bad as they were on New Year’s Eve.

“We lost power in the morning then and the sky was completely black,” Ms Illes told AAP.

“But we weren’t expecting it on New Year’s Eve - today we have been warned.”

The huge 200,000-hectare Badja Forest Road blaze is burning to the west of the town and the Illes won’t risk trying to save their property in an estate in southern Narooma.

They have ve sought refuge on the water’s edge near the evacuation centre.

The couple hasn’t experienced bushfire before, but they’ve seen the aftermath of one - the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria.

Sally Illes’ sister’s property was badly affected in that disaster.

The couple never thought the seaside town of Narooma would be impacted by fire, however.

“We’re really surprised,” Ms Illes said.

“We thought ’We’re near the beach, so we’re pretty safe’.”

While the dryness in the area has been a concern for locals no one thought the fires would threaten the town itself.

The Badja Road blaze in Countegany is out of control at “watch and act” alert level.

But emergency fires rage from near Bega, across the alpine region towards Wagga Wagga and up to Sydney’s southwestern outskirts.

NSW Rural Fire Service assistant fire behaviour analyst Andrew Nicholls says conditions are expected to rapidly change throughout the evening.

Authorities are concerned about a southeasterly wind change which is due to hit Narooma about 5pm, Moruya at 6pm and Nowra at 8pm.

Some 30,000 customers in the Batemans Bay and Moruya regions have lost power due to bushfire affecting infrastructure, Essential Energy said on Saturday afternoon.

“Further outages may occur as the fires continue through the southeast area,“ the company posted on Facebook.

The RFS says residents in Bermagui, Regatta Point, Wallaga Lake and Wallaga Lake Heights should monitor conditions “and know what you will do if the fire threatens”.

The national bushfire death now stands at 23 and is ominous sign for NSW and Victoria bracing for a “fire onslaught” with terrifying conditions forecast for Saturday.

Wind gusts of almost 70km/h have already been recorded in Victoria’s Mt Hotham region and will continue to increase throughout the day, authorities warn.

Ms Berejiklian urged people to evacuate bushfire hotspots while they still had time, but authorities have warned the window to leave is closing.

“All of the major road networks are still open, but we can’t guarantee that beyond the next few hours. So, there are still windows for people to get out,“ she told reporters on Saturday.

More than 3000 firefighters are on the frontline, with 31 specialist strike teams in place across NSW as firefighters warn some towns cannot be defended.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said temperatures would soar past 40C in NSW before a “volatile” southerly wind sweeps through in the afternoon.

“We’re going to have a long day dominated by hot temperatures, dry atmosphere and winds coming out of the ranges,” he told reporters.

“It will make for a very dangerous day and it will make for volatile fire grounds.”

Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said anyone making late decisions to leave needed to check the fire conditions, .

“We have a long way to go today. Today is a very challenging day for all of us,“ he said.

Many fires in East Gippsland have already merged and the current risk is the 124,000-hectare fire in the northeast at Corryong merges with another fire in NSW as multiple evacuation orders are issued across Victoria’s Alpine region.

Victoria has declared a state of disaster with two people confirmed dead and grave fears for 21 who cannot be accounted for in East Gippsland.

The unprecedented declaration, which triggers powers introduced after the devastating 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, allows authorities to compel people to leave.

Tens of thousands of residents and holidaymakers have already fled the fire zones with many sheltering at evacuation points deemed safe by authorities.

The military has also been supporting the fire response, with about 1200 people evacuated from the Victorian coastal town of Mallacoota by navy vessels on Friday.

Asked whether a more national response is needed to bushfires in the future, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said agencies were already working together well.

Mr Morrison said he had been working the phones to source more overseas firefighters and aircraft to help fight the blazes and that people should expect more planes will come.

“This is what we do, as things escalate,” he said.

Bushfire smoke from raging blazes in Victoria has blanketed Tasmania, forcing authorities to issue a public health alert.