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Six NSW RFS firefighters suffer minor injuries after water tanker rolls

Another NSW Rural Fire Service truck has flipped with the six firefighters inside taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Several RFS volunteers have been injured after a crash on the NSW south coast.

Several RFS volunteers have been injured after a crash on the NSW south coast. Source: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Six NSW Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighters have been injured while battling a blaze on the NSW South Coast.

The firefighters suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital for observation after their water tanker rolled near the Clyde Mountain fire at Eurobodalla.

Three of the volunteers remained in hospital overnight for observation, while the other three were released shortly after the incident. 

A RFS spokesperson said the first three were later released from the hospital.

On Thursday night, the Badja Forest Road fire merged with the Clyde Mountain fire, stretching from Bega to Bundanoon, and residents in the area were warned to seek shelter.

The injuries come as the country mourns the death of three American firefighters, killed when their C-130 waterbombing plane went down on Thursday afternoon.

NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told ABC News on Friday the crash was likely the result of "pretty significant fireball".

In December, three NSW RFS volunteers were killed while on duty in two separate incidents, after their vehicles rolled during this year's catastrophic fire season.

Horsley Park brigade members Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O'Dwyer, 36, were killed when a tree fell into the path of their tanker, causing it to roll, near the NSW town of Buxton on 19 December. 

Less than two weeks later, Samuel McPaul, 28, died near Jingellic, about 110km east of Albury in NSW, when the truck he was travelling in was hit by extreme winds and flipped on its roof.

NSW RFS said fire conditions had eased on Friday, following a southerly change that brought light rain and cooler conditions to fire grounds across the state's south coast.


2 min read

Published

Updated

By SBS News

Source: SBS



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