Villages evacuated as blaze breaks defence lines - Summer terror: [3 All-round Metro Edition]
John Stapleton, Misha Schubert. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 Jan 2003: 7.
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Abstract
Authorities in Jindabyne rehoused more than 150 people from the tiny hamlets and farming districts of Penderlea, Tigers Hill, Moonbah, Gullies Road and theGatton Trout Hatchery area. But authorities warned that Jindabyne, Michelago, Williamsdale and Ingebirah were under threat from fires burning out of control.
Rural Fire Services spokesman John Winter said the blaze was gigantic. "There's a big cluster of fires stretching from Kosciuszko through the north to Yass, with 400,000 hectares of primarily national park and other bushland ablaze," he said. "It's threatening farms and holiday houses right along the Alpine Way."
FIRES in the Snowy Mountains caused the evacuation of several NSW villages yesterday, with more than a hundred residents gathering in the main town of Jindabyne.
The fires that started in remote country weeks ago are now threatening farms, holiday houses and townships all along the Alpine Way, and yesterday broke containment lines throughout the Kosciuszko National Park.
Authorities in Jindabyne rehoused more than 150 people from the tiny hamlets and farming districts of Penderlea, Tigers Hill, Moonbah, Gullies Road and theGatton Trout Hatchery area. But authorities warned that Jindabyne, Michelago, Williamsdale and Ingebirah were under threat from fires burning out of control.
Rural Fire Services spokesman John Winter said the blaze was gigantic. "There's a big cluster of fires stretching from Kosciuszko through the north to Yass, with 400,000 hectares of primarily national park and other bushland ablaze," he said. "It's threatening farms and holiday houses right along the Alpine Way."
The Thredbo resort, which has been a base for firefighters and emergency personnel for the past week, has been almost fully evacuated, with only emergency staff remaining.
Shauna Hulbert, owner of a deer farm at Moonbah near Jindabyne, and her family were forced to evacuate yesterday afternoon.
"I might not have a home to go back to," she said.
"I'm very worried about the deer. This is a farming community, you either work the land or work the resorts. The whole community in Jindabyne has opened their homes to the farming community.
"Ninety-nine per cent of our husbands and older boys are out fighting the flames.
"The fires have been going on for so long that everyone is just tired. You can't live on that stress level forever."
The fires were being fed by wind gusts of up to 70km/h, Mr Winter said. "We're seeing conditions that were always going to make containment lines break in this mountainous country."
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