As the clean up begins, questions are being asked why warnings failed to reach people or arrived too late to get out

Fates turned on mere metres when the bushfire ripped through the New South Wales town of Tathra.

The raining embers, carried and fanned by raging winds, were indiscriminate in their destruction. Some started spot fires and brought homes down while leaving adjacent properties wholly untouched.

When the sun rose over the seaside village the next morning, it revealed an eerie scene. On one street there was scarcely a blade of grass out of place. But walk around the corner, and there was nothing but devastation. Collapsed roofs, scorched car shells, blackened brick, and twisted metal.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Eivers and Jess Green with their son Alfie. Their caravan was destroyed in the Tathra fires. Photograph: Paul Eivers

For the Green family, the duality could not be more stark. The Greens own two caravans within metres of each other in a motor village on Tathra’s northern end, near the Bega River.

One, owned by Jess Green and her partner Paul Eivers, was razed to the ground. The other, her parents’, escaped without so much as smoke damage.

Eivers watched the fire on television from Canberra on Sunday afternoon.

The pair have since seen images, broadcast by the ABC, which they believe may show their caravan on fire. “It’s just insane how the fire would pick and choose stuff,” Eivers said. “Where it would go, and which one it was going to take.”

Eivers is quick to put their loss in perspective. Far more was lost by others in Tathra, he says. But among their caravan’s incinerated possessions was something irreplaceable – a painting by his then 18-month-old old son. “It would be nothing to anybody else, but for me it was special,” Eivers said.

The fire descended with frightening speed

Tathra residents – initially kept out of the town due asbestos fears, unstable structures, and live power lines – began trickling back in from Tuesday night. They face the daunting prospect of rebuilding their sleepy village.

For some, it’s a process that could take 18 months, according to the recovery coordinator, Euan Ferguson.

At final count, 65 houses were destroyed, 48 were damaged, 810 were saved or untouched, and 35 caravans and cabins were lost. Even firefighters agree it was a small miracle no one was seriously hurt or killed.

Residents of the small town, population around1,600, had limited options to escape. The two main routes out were across the Bega River to the north or inland towards Bega.

The fire descended with frightening speed, crossing the Bega River about 4pm, and tearing through bushland towards the coast. The Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said the fire was directed towards Tathra only by a sudden wind gust. It was otherwise expected to miss the town.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said the fire was directed towards Tathra by a sudden wind gust Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

The conditions were described as a “perfect storm” – hot temperatures, dry fuel loads, and high winds. The front was preceded by what Fitzsimmons described as “raining embers”.

“It ran so quickly, it went seven or eight kilometres in just a couple of hours,” Fitzsimmons said. “Not only did you have the main fire front, but you had these ember storms; the village of Tathra was raining embers. So you’ll find as you drive around in some streets, there are homes that have been burnt and destroyed, and yet everything around it – the vegetation the lawns, the gardens – aren’t even touched.”

Tathra bushfire: NSW Rural Fire Service says power lines likely cause Read more

How did it start?

As rebuilding begins, questions are being asked about the cause and handling of the fire. Two inquiries will investigate the Tathra bushfire: one headed by former police chief Mick Keelty, and another to be held in the coroner’s court.



Questions have already been posed: how well did the state’s two firefighting services respond to triple-0 calls and send resources? Could more fuel reduction in the bushland around Tathra have been done?Did lax maintenance of the electricity network contribute?

The RFS says the fire likely started along power lines on Reedy Swamp Road, prompting the Electrical Trades Union in NSW to criticise Essential Energy, the responsible government-owned corporation.

Crucially, questions remain about the serious failures in warnings and alerts to residents.

Text-based warnings to many residents either failed completely or were late enough to be redundant. The early loss of power prevented landline and radio alerts being effective.



Tathra, a notorious mobile black spot, is yet to receive infrastructure upgrades, despite being identified as a “priority location” for $60m of spending under the commonwealth’s mobile black spot program.

The opposition regional communications spokesman, Stephen Jones, said the black spot program has been tarred by politically motivated decision-making and said areas prone to natural disasters should move to the top of the queue.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some properties were completely destroyed in Tathra, while others, just metres away, escaped with minimal damage. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Problems with the phone-based alert system are not new. The same system is used in most states and territories, and in 2011, it comprehensively failed during a toxic fire in the northern suburbs of Canberra. The alerts were supposed to go to 86,801 home phones, and 83,774 mobiles. About 80% of those home calls were never made, and 32% of the texts were not sent, because the system was so slow it would have taken seven hours to reach everyone.

‘Dysfunctional and dangerous’ fire rescue services

The Tathra fire has also prompted an ugly brawl involving the state’s two fire services: Fire and Rescue NSW and the RFS.

In the early stages of the fire, the RFS knocked back two offers of help from nearby urban firefighters. The decision prompted much angst from the Fire Brigade Employees Union, which represents Fire and Rescue members. The union’s state secretary, Leighton Drury, made the explosive allegation that the refusal had caused more properties to be lost in Tathra.

The feeling here in the town is that we’re all very, very grateful to the fireys Gary Rodely, Tathra oyster farmer

“The competition between the state’s two fire services is dysfunctional and dangerous,” Drury said. “In this case, it has contributed to the loss of scores of homes that may have been saved had FRNSW urban crews been in Tathra. It has to stop.”

The allegation won him few friends. The RFS rejected the allegation as “disgusting”, saying the pumper on offer was completely unsuitable for fighting the fire, which was at that stage burning in remote, mountainous terrain.

Residents are similarly unimpressed with criticism of the response of firefighters.

Gary Rodely is a Tathra-based oyster farmer, and owns Tathra Oysters, a local business that is busy preparing for the Royal Easter Show. Rodely said the town was completely behind the efforts of firefighters. He’s displaying messages on his business trailer, which read: “Thank you to all our brave fire fighters. Forever grateful.”

“The feeling here in the town is that we’re all very, very grateful to the fireys for what they have done,” Rodely told Guardian Australia. “Anybody who was here on the ground knew what a perfect fire storm this was. People were brave enough to stay and battle it. There’s certainly no ill feeling in the town,” he said.

The emergency services minister, Troy Grant, described the union’s allegations as “bastardry”, while the former NSW RFS commissioner, Phil Koperberg, rejected any allegations of a turf war between the two services.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two inquiries will investigate the Tathra bushfire: one headed by former police chief Mick Keelty and another in the coroner’s court. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

“There’s certainly a turf war between the union and the rest of the universe in terms of logic,” Koperberg told the ABC on Thursday. “I don’t think we should underplay the cooperation which exists between the two organisations, because it’s to a very high order.”

Affected residents were bussed in to the town on Tuesday and taken on a grim procession through the bushfire-ravaged village.

Many others, including Rodely, are still working up the nerve to go back. “I’ve got to steel myself to do it, that’s all,” he told Guardian Australia. “When it comes time for me to drive around the town, it’s going to be a harrowing experience.

“We’re a tourist town so I suppose the message that everyone is keen to get out, especially with Easter coming up, is that the town’s open for business, and back to normal. We need people to not cancel their holidays, we need people to come.’

The beach is open, as are some accommodation providers.