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When Garry Morgan arrived home on Friday afternoon, his rural mid-north coast property was enveloped in a “big plume of smoke”. Within twenty-four hours later, two houses on his street were consumed, and the surrounding forest would be reduced to blackened skeletal remains.

A Town Grappling with Loss

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 hit by a collapsing tree. This signals a ominous beginning to the fire season.

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

“Words fail to capture it,” Morgan stated. “My canine companions remained close, it was terrifying.”

Scenes of Destruction and Resilience

Bulahdelah is a common pause on the Pacific Highway for holidaymakers 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 shrouded in dense, ochre-hazed smoke. Aircraft conducting water drops hovered overhead, aiding ground crews who were working to contain a fire that had burnt 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Passing trucks slowed to observe traffic cones and warning signs, the blackened gum trees and charred grass on each side of the highway proof of how far the fire had swept through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It remained 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 helicopters circling overhead and acrid odor lingering in the air.

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

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

Personal Accounts from the Fireground

Billows of smoke were still rising from spots of embers on Emu Creek Road, a meandering country road that hugs a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a boundary post outside a destroyed home, a charred teddy bear remained pinned to the log, still wearing a Christmas hat.

Nearby, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a small area of green surrounding his house the sole remnant of how the area once appeared. Against the odds, his property was saved, despite his neighbor's home 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 prediction was accurate.

“We hosed down the property and shed down, wet the perimeter,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “alarm”. “I thought, ‘what the hell have I got myself into’,” he said. “I decided to stay.”

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

A Landscape Transformed

Morgan, who has resided at the same house for around 30 years, has never seen the land this parched.

“It once rained rain every week,” he said. “This intensity is new. 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, except for a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had burnt to ash.

“I’ve been here many, many times,” he said. “A few years ago a fire almost reached a local ridge and that was pretty scary then, but the wind changed.

“The conditions are far more arid now. It came from everywhere, and the firefighters pretty much saved it [the property].”

This was not a novel situation for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires came through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘The speed was unbelievable’,” 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.”

Official Response and Ongoing Threat

Kirsty Channon, public information officer for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from various services had come from “across the coastal region” to help with the firefighting operation and had done an “outstanding job” protecting houses from being destroyed.

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

“Firefighters is a close-knit group,” she said. “The threat persists.

“We’ve seen the Pacific Highway open and close a few times, the fire jump backwards and forwards. It’s still not contained, it will continue to grow.”

Channon said efforts in the coming hours would center on the tiny township of Nerong, which was anticipated to be impacted by the highway fire on Monday evening. Residents had been urged to evacuate if unprepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.

“Spot fires are starting from lightning strikes a few days ago,” she said.

“Tomorrow’s weather is mid 30s with shifting winds, and that has been difficult - wind changes direction in the area.”