RAIN last Thursday night and Friday helped ease the immediate threat of fires on the Mid North Coast, but much more is needed before we’re out of danger.
“Yes, it was welcome rain, but we need a lot more,” a spokesperson for Wauchope Rural Fire Service said.
“Despite that rain, everything is still really dry and we remain on alert because there is a high fire danger. Conditions are really tricky.”
Weatherzone recorded 8.6mm of rain up to 9am on Friday and 32.8mm up to 9am on Saturday.
The rain and thunderstorms also brought with it its own downside, with a lightning strike starting a fire west of the Oxley Highway, which took fire-fighters several days to contain.
The days before the rain showed just what we could be in for later this summer if conditions don’t ease, with a major fire on the North Shore on the western side of Maria River Road burning out thousands of hectares of agricultural land before entering Limeburners Creek National Park.
The fire was eventually contained by crews from Kempsey with the aid of National Parks staff.
Two koalas, a mother and her joey, took refuge on a fence post and were cared for by a local wildlife park until it was safe to release them back into the wild.
Port Macquarie itself was also not spared, with a fire at the Kooloongbung Nature Reserve right in town.
A crew from the Port Macquarie Fire Station was called out at 5.30am on Thursday after a blaze in the reserve was reported. The fire burnt out about three hectares and 40m of boardwalk before it was contained. They were called out again at 2.30pm to a fire in another section of the reserve, which burnt out about two hectares before it was contained.
The cause of the fires is unknown. Police attended the scene in the morning.
State-wide, residents have been urged to adhere to fire bans and draw up a bushfire survival plan.
As covered in last week’s Independent front page story, weather forecasters are predicting a hot summer due to warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures.
