With fires being reported from several areas of the Northern Rivers, NPWS and the RFS crews continue to work on containing the Bayshore Drive fire, the blaze has been under the watchful eye of fire fighters for over 24 hours.
The RFS say there is currently no threat to property and the fire is burning between Grays Lane and Ewingsdale Rd. Firefighting crews, supported by aircraft, are working on complete containment of the areas still burning.
Smoke will continue to travel in a southerly direction throughout the day, across Byron Bay, Lennox Head, Suffolk Park & Ballina, however is expected to be lighter than yesterday.
Currently no threat
While this fire is not currently posing a threat, residents need to remain vigilant across the Far North Coast as we still have an EXTREME Fire Danger Rating and any new fires could pose a significant threat to property.
A TOTAL FIRE BAN remains in place until midnight tonight.
Stay up to date with current fires by downloading the Hazards Near Me app or via the RFS Website.
The fires are burning right up to where Byron Council wants to store large holding tanks of highly explosive Methane, which is to fuel the proposed methane burning, greenhouse gas and air particulate polluting, Electricity production Bioenergy Plant, and all adjacent to the Sunrise residential development. The Renewable Energy Agency rejected funding Councils gas fired electricity plant, but greenwash Council has now applied for another govt funding source for their $M25 Project.
“Byron fire still burning after 24 hours”………” this fire is not currently posing a threat” to whom or to what ?
This is a sensitive coastal environment and the RFS are as useless as usual.
Cheers, G”)
fires are natural in this coastal ecosystem, how do you think banksia’s and eucalypts regenerate ?
Coast Banksia (B.integrifolia) doesn’t need fire to regenerate. It is the only banksia that doesn’t.
The other two banksia species in Tyagarah NR have seed storage that is still viable for decades.
Eucalypts can take advantage of post-fire conditions to establish, but likewise don’t need fire to regenerate either.
Says the warrior from his keyboard
I think it would be helpful if all fire reports contained a statement as to how it was thought to be lit.
Then others could learn what not to do.
On the weekend they said it was a planned fire and was under control??? Now it’s out of control
No-one ever said it was a planned fire.
Only a moron would plan a fire under these conditions.
It was “Being Controlled” big difference.
A wildfire is not declared “Under Control” until all edges are safe & dead for 24-48 hours after a backburn.
WIth the ferocious winds today it was a testament to the good work of RFS & NPWS on Grays Lane that it didn’t get out of the box until around midday, 9-10 hours after the change came through with 50km/hr winds gusting to 70km/hr. As you have seen this afternoon, a fire is uncontrollable under those conditions.
Hmmm, yet another bushfire that started 40metres from a road, not started by lightning, fallen powerlines or a vehicle accident….. so that leaves…. someone with a match. Right behind the new pub.
Surely someone saw this start.
Surely the Police & RFS will investigate & find something other than just the usual “point of origin” which is already known. It’s beep arson FFS! It’s cost probably $200K already to contain & killed hundreds, if no thousands of native animals in that 300-400 hectares.
Koalas were in there.
It is sooo lucky it didn’t jump Ewingsdale Rd. That would have been all of that Melaleuca wetland forest contiguous with Cumbebin Swamp Nature Reserve uncontrollable right into central Byron & Suffolk. Close call.
And how dumb for the skydivers to continue in those winds while 3 helicopters were operating, & the 30 knuckleheads who drove around the park closed signs on Grays Lane just to go to the beach & the hundreds of rubberneckers blocking Bayshore Drive to have a look. Typical day in Babylon Bay
@Ken Neither National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS – the lead agency for this event), nor the Rural Fire Service (RFS), started these fires. In the present conditions (high winds and very dry fuel) any fire rapidly develops to a level that cannot simply be extinguished by hoses. The activities of the NPWS and RFS, working together, are to protect life property and the environment, put in control lines to limit spread, and use aerial attack to hit hot spots in vulnerable areas. If the control lines hold they will stop spread of the fire into the rest of the sensitive coastal Tyagarah Reserve and north to Brunswick Heads. Many NPWS staff and RFS members (who are unpaid volunteers) have been working on this fire continuously, and very hard, since the morning of Oct 14th. I don’t believe your comments reflect the general views of the community towards NPWS and RFS.
Try some public out reach. We explain this stuff at High Schools as part of our recruitment drives. The kids are able to answer their parents questions about our management strategies. Then we set stuff on fire and give’em a crack at putting it out. Our public is informed, and we have no recruiting short falls.
Grass fire became bushfire near Wadeville started 4 days ago still going. Upgraded then downgraded still going!
Clearly something is wrong with strategy and/or tactical response. Don’t pretend there is not a problem because those fighting it are unpaid volunteers! We need a professional RFS, that’s paid and well trained.
There is a lot of underground Peat in this area so fire will likely burn and smoulder for a long time ,
It started as a small fire behind the bush at back of habitat saturday arvo , then brought down powerlines in the feed supply for Sunrise area.
power was out for about 4 hours saturday arvo , One has to wonder why it was not hit with more air resources saturday arvo when it would have been easier to put out ,?
Anyway , thanks to the RFS and volunteers who tried their best , but by Sunday arvo it was 10-15 times bigger.
a lot of smoke and ash in my backyard and large embers on late saturday , we also have a nature reserve at back of ours , so kept an eye on it all weekend.
Your “air resources” aren’t just sitting at Tyagarah waiting for a fire. They are hundreds of kilometres away, often working on other fires & their redeployment is prioritised at state level. From memory there were 70+ “going” fires on Saturday. With Saturday’s wind & these currently extremely dry conditions it was always going to get bigger once it exceeded a hectare
will the byron bay fire travel to lennox head