Kempsey residents defend properties from bushfires
Firefighters are still trying to contain a bush fire near Kempsey. Residents spent days defending their properties. They’ve been assessing the damage.
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00:00 Charred ground as far as the eye can see.
00:05 My heart was palpitating because I thought the house was going to go through these trees
00:09 here.
00:10 Fire swept through Rowena Tweedie's property at Temagog last week.
00:14 She's grateful to still have her animals.
00:16 Because all these birds here would have been dead.
00:20 She credits the aerial bombers with saving her home too.
00:24 It stopped right here because of them and the fireys came and gave a hand later.
00:28 What are you going to do with fixing fences?
00:30 How are you going to do that?
00:31 I don't know.
00:32 I do not know.
00:33 I haven't any money left so it's just a matter of feeding the animals now.
00:38 A few kilometres west, aerial firefighters weren't quick enough to save Melissa Pritchard's
00:44 shed.
00:45 We bundled up the cat, the dog and evacuated and then we came back the next day to find
00:50 this.
00:51 What have you lost?
00:53 The shed.
00:54 All the contents of the shed.
00:55 We're on 170 acres so all the feed for the animals.
01:01 Not much in the path of the fire survived, including native animals.
01:05 Bounty coots, a lot of kangaroos, a lot of wallabies.
01:09 Off in the distance, a growing smoke plume means the danger hasn't passed yet.
01:17 Firefighters have spent the day putting out spot fires like this as the wind consistently
01:22 changes direction and there is yet another wind change expected tonight, setting crews
01:27 up for a long evening.
01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]