NSW is currently facing its biggest bushfire crisis in over a decade, with almost 100 fires still burning in and around Sydney and coastal areas. Firefighting services have been forced to call in recruits from interstate to help control the fires, which have claimed 82,000 hectares of land, hundreds of houses, and, tragically, one man's life.
Sue Dunlop of Winmalee in the Blue Mountains lost her house in the fires.
“My husband came up and said to me ‘Look, we’ve had all our windows blow up. The house is on fire. We’re not going to save it,'" she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"He still did try. He tried so hard. The fire brigade eventually came late and they just said ‘No, you’re not going to save it because you’ve got a flat roof.’”
Dunlop was upset, but frank, about the potential perils of the bushland location of her destroyed home.
“You live in the bush, you live by the rules of the bush, and that’s it. And it’s just so disheartening that somebody next to you doesn’t, and you just lose everything,” she said.
Residents of inner Sydney were not affected by the actual fires, but many flooded Twitter and Instagram with picture posts of the ominous red sky.
Gwandalan resident Luke Humphries on the Central Coast says he is prepared for the worst.
"The sky is orange. All you can taste is smoke. You can't open the front door of the house because all you're breathing in is smoke, it's that thick.”
“It’s crazy to think in minutes you could lose everything.”
Amidst the turmoil and loss, a sense of humour was retained among residents of the Catherine Hill Bay area, who were happy that the Big Prawn survived the fire.
Winmalee resident Geordie Cox says in a time of panic and despair, happiness can be found in the human generosity that often emerges from tragedy.
"You see on social media we've had cafes in the local area that are opening up for free food, gyms that are offering their shower facilities to people," she said. "I know up at the local news agency in Springwood you can drop off clothes and, I'm pretty sure, food donations there and everybody is getting on board."
