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As a local resident arrived home on the end of the week, his rural mid-north coast property was encircled by a “big plume of smoke”. Within twenty-four hours later, two houses on his street were consumed, and the adjacent bushland was transformed into blackened skeletal remains.

A Community at the Centre of Tragedy

The township of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a tragedy after a long-serving firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was struck by a collapsing tree. This represents a “foreboding start” to the bushfire season.

Four structures have been destroyed in the wider Bulahdelah area, comprising two on Emu Creek Road, the residence of Garry Morgan, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.

“Words fail to capture it,” he said. “My canine companions remained close, it was frightening.”

Scenes of Destruction and Resilience

Bulahdelah is a common pause on the Pacific Highway for travelers on their way up the mid-north coast to beach areas such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.

On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was blanketed in thick, orange smoke. Aircraft conducting water drops hovered overhead, aiding ground crews who were working to contain a blaze that had consumed 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Transport vehicles reduced speed for road markers and warning signs, the charred eucalypts and ash-covered ground on each side of the highway proof of how far the fire had burnt through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It was still at a 'watch and act' alert level on Monday evening.

The Nerve Centre for Firefighting

In Bulahdelah, though, it would seem like another ordinary day if not for the aircraft overhead and smell of smoke lingering in the air.

A fuel depot for aircraft has been set up at the town’s showground, converting it into a hub for around 300 firefighters and volunteers who have travelled from across the state to help.

On Monday afternoon, supplies of water were being unloaded from trucks and sweets were being packed into zip lock bags. One firefighter estimated that they needed a bottle of water every 20 minutes when on the frontline.

First-Hand Stories from the Blaze

Clouds of smoke were still rising from smoldering patches on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that follows a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a boundary post outside a destroyed home, a scorched stuffed toy remained pinned to the log, complete with a Christmas hat.

Down the road, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a little patch of grass surrounding his house the only remaining sign of how the landscape used to look. Miraculously, his property was spared, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.

He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, telling him “you have roughly 30 minutes and then a blaze will arrive”. His timing was precise.

“We doused the buildings and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “alarm”. “I thought, ‘what have I gotten into’,” he said. “I decided to stay.”

Thankfully, firefighters surrounded the house, and succeeded in defending it. The bushfire passed over in about half an hour, sounding like “a roaring inferno”.

A Landscape Transformed

Morgan, who has lived in the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land in such a dry state.

“It once rained rain every week,” he said. “Fires of this magnitude are unprecedented. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

On the same street, Jeff Curley was caring for his friend’s property which had also mostly been spared Saturday’s blaze, other than a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had burnt to ash.

“I am very familiar with this area,” he said. “A few years ago a fire almost approached a nearby ridge and that was pretty scary then, but the wind changed.

“The dryness is extreme now. It came from everywhere, and the firefighters essentially protected it [the property].”

This experience wasn’t new for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires swept through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘I can’t believe how fast it came’,” he said. “You think it’s over there, and suddenly it's upon you. I understand the feeling. I told my friend to evacuate immediately, and he did.”

Fire Service Update and Continuing Danger

Kirsty Channon, spokesperson for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from various services had come from “across the coastal region” to help with the containment effort and had done an “amazing job” saving properties from being destroyed.

She said all agencies had “worked as one” after the tragic loss of one of their own.

“Firefighters is a close-knit group,” she said. “However, the danger is not over.

“We’ve seen the Pacific Highway open and close a few times, the fire spot across the road. It’s still not contained, it is expected to spread.”

Channon said work in the immediate future would center on the tiny township of Nerong, which was anticipated to be impacted by the Pacific Highway blaze on Monday evening. Residents had been urged to evacuate if unprepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.

“Small blazes are igniting from lightning strikes a few days ago,” she said.

“The forecast is mid 30s with variable wind, and that’s been challenge - wind swirls in the area.”