A major firefighting operation including a waterbombing helicopter saved homes threatened by a bushfire at Heddon Greta on Saturday afternoon.
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The blaze which began 1pm was fanned by 50-70km/h winds before finally being contained about 4pm. It burnt out an area of about five hectares but did not damage any homes.
With strong winds still blowing across the Hunter fire crews remained on the scene overnight and into Sunday to ensure it did not reignite.
NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW units and a waterbombing aircraft were swung into action after the blaze was spotted about 1pm.
By 2pm a "Watch and Act" alert was issued and residents along Young Street were advised to leave their homes if they were not prepared.
Fire and Rescue NSW had local crews quickly on scene doing property protection freeing up Rural Fire Service units to control and extinguishing the fire in the bush.
About 80 RFS firefighters from as far at Port Stephens were involved at the height of the blaze.
RFS senior media and communications officer Angela Burford said the crews did a great job in very trying conditions.
"They got a number of trucks set up to protect homes along Young Street very quickly, because their first problem was they had real difficulty accessing the fire itself," Operational Officer Burford said.
"We got a helicopter up to waterbomb to assist them quite quickly as well.
"There was a point where we elevated it to Watch and Act because it was quite concerning how close it was getting to some of those homes.
"Eventually the firefighters were able to gain access and they utilised all of the power easements and fire trails to get in to pull the fire up before it started to march towards the homes.
"The prevailing westerly was blowing towards Young Street. They were experiencing gusts of 50-70km/h on the fire ground, so as you can imagine the smallest fire can pick up and spread very quickly."
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
