‘For heaven’s sake stay away from bushland,’ Gladys Berejiklian warns as conditions to worsen on Tuesday

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Across New South Wales more than 575 schools will shut their doors on Tuesday, while aged care homes remain on high alert and animal shelters scramble to re-home pets as much of the state prepares for catastrophic fire conditions.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, declared a week-long state of emergency on Monday in the wake of devastating fires on the state’s mid-north coast in which three people died and at least 150 homes were destroyed.

While favourable conditions helped ease the bushfire threat on Monday, more than 60 bushfires continue to ravage the state and the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast “hot, dry and gusty winds” on Tuesday which “will generate very dangerous fire conditions across large parts of the state”.

More than 1,300 firefighters have been mobilised and the chief of the defence force has ordered defence bases to provide any assistance requested by local firefighters.

The severe fire danger prompted the Rural Fire Service to declare a catastrophic fire danger warning for large chunks of the state, including in the greater Sydney area, the Hunter, Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions.

It is the first time the warning has been issued in greater Sydney and the first state of emergency since October 2013, when major bushfires killed two people and destroyed hundreds of homes in the state’s Blue Mountains region.

Both the premier and the commissioner of the RFS, Shane Fitzsimmons, urged people living in the catastrophic areas to head for built-up areas, with Berejiklian urging people to “for heaven’s sake stay away from bushland”.

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“Fires are starting extremely quickly, easily and spreading very, very quickly,” Fitzsimmons told reporters on Monday.

“We cannot guarantee a fire truck at every home, we cannot guarantee an aircraft will be overhead every time a fire is impacting on your property, we cannot guarantee that someone will knock on the door and give you a warning that there’s fires nearby, and we certainly cannot guarantee that despite our best efforts the technological tools available will deliver you a message in time.”

A community newsletter released on Monday afternoon told Coffs Harbour and Bellingen residents in areas west of the Pacific highway to self-relocate to a major urban area like Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga, Sawtell, Bellingen, Urunga and Dorrigo, but warned that some places east of the highway are not safe enough to take refuge.

The warnings have put much of the state on high alert. Parents will be scrambling to find alternative arrangements for their children after the NSW government again increased the number of schools and Tafe campuses which will close on Tuesday.

The full list of government and non-government schools and Tafe campuses now numbers more than 575.

“The schools that are operational tomorrow have comprehensive emergency management plans in place which will be activated if required,” the department said.

Aged care providers have been put on notice that evacuations could be necessary.

“In anticipation of hot, dry and windy conditions forecast for Tuesday 12 November, all of Anglicare’s staff are reviewing the evacuation plans and making sure all contact lists are up to date,” the Anglicare spokeswoman Tess Delbridge said.

On the central coast, north of Sydney, the Gosford pound was calling for volunteers to help with short-term re-homing.

“We are asking if there are any coasties who would be willing to collect a dog either this afternoon or tomorrow morning to crash at your home until Wednesday,” the organisation wrote on Facebook.

When Guardian Australia called the shelter on Monday, a staff member said, “I’ve got about 30 people here wanting to look after dogs.”

Berejiklian said on Monday she had declared a state of emergency at the request of the RFS.

“With catastrophic weather conditions predicted for this week, particularly Tuesday with hot weather and strong winds, I have decided to take the commissioner’s advice and make this declaration,” Berejiklian said.

“Everybody has to assume the worst and we cannot allow complacency to creep in.”

It comes after fires tore through the mid-north coast of NSW over the weekend, killing three people and leaving 100 more injured, including 20 firefighters.

Ten of the more than 60 fires in NSW remained at watch and act level on Monday evening.

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Dael Allison, from the tiny NSW town of Bobin, north-west of Taree, said at least a dozen people she knew had lost their homes.

“Bobin is shocking,” she says. “Bobin is devastated. There would be entire hillsides that wouldn’t have a tree standing.”

Allison drove with her partner, Rick Haughton, and son from Port Stephens to Bobin on Sunday to check on friends and on their property, where they grow eucalypts.

The main house is still standing but sheds, the original cottage they built and that their children spent the first years of their lives in, and most of the land are burned out.

“We’ve had fires but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Allison said. “I’ve never seen fires that come right down to the water level of the creek. “I don’t know where fire crews are getting their water from.

“The whole area is just on fire. At least a dozen people I know have lost houses. That would be nowhere near the final count.”

The RFS inspector Ben Shepherd warned people outside of the catastrophic fire danger areas that other parts of NSW would still have “severe and extreme” dangers on Tuesday.

“We need to ensure that people understand there is a risk in all bushland areas, stretching from Bega all the way to Byron, from the Victorian border to the Queensland border,” he said.

In Queensland, more than 65 fires were burning across the state on Monday evening, with firefighters battling three watch and act level fires at: Cobraball near Yeppoon, Townson and Thornton in the Lockyer Valley, and Clumber.

Meanwhile, a bushfire threatened lives and properties in Rockingham, Western Australian, and homes and businesses in Port Lincoln, South Australia were threatened by an out-of-control bushfire on the outskirts of the Eyre peninsula town.