WHEN an inferno raged on both ends of the street, appearing to have firefighters defeated, Robert Dobing’s first thought was for his daughter.
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“I grabbed her,” Mr Dobing said of the terrifying ordeal.
“It looked like we were going to lose the house, for sure. I was waiting for the firefighters to say, ‘It’s time to go, leave, we can’t hold it back’, and then the wind changed.”
The welcome change of wind is a key reason why dozens of homes on Northcote Street in Kurri Kurri were still standing on Thursday, as firefighters were able to avert disaster the day before, with only minor damage to a handful of properties.
The mood in Kurri Kurri was one of relief on Thursday, albeit underscored by anger that the fire was deliberately lit, with the state’s bushfire investigation unit finding multiple ignition points, including one that failed to take hold.
Mr Dobing took to Facebook to send a message to firebugs as the rumour mill went into overdrive after the threat had passed.
“I just wanted them to know what their parents, and people like myself, have to go through to [pay a house] off all your life, and then suddenly have a worry that you’re going to lose it,” he said. “They nearly got rid of half the houses in Kurri.”
Brendon Collins, who fought back flames in the yard of Kurri Hardware, said he had “never seen a fire like that in Kurri before”.
“Thank God for the choppers dropping the water down,” he said.
Mr Collins said it would have been a “great loss” to the business if the fire continued to race in its direction.
The 20-year-old also had a pointed message for arsonists.
“I don’t know what fun you get out of doing this,” he said.
“All you are doing is causing heartache for a lot of families and businesses out there in the local community.”
Northcote Street resident David Dodd said Kurri Kurri had long lived in the presence of arsonists, with a reward still on offer for the deadly 2002 Abernethy blaze.
“It’s on your mind,” Mr Dodd said. “If it’s a hot and windy day, you wonder if today’s the day it all goes up. You don’t know what they’re going to do.”
There was still a heavy presence of firefighters in Kurri Kurri, Sawyers Gully and Heddon Greta on Thursday as they worked to extinguish the blaze.
RFS Lower Hunter Control Centre group officer John Ryan said the efforts of ground crews in the face of Wednesday’s out of control fire were “superhuman”.
“Some of the stuff they were expected to do was superhuman – you can’t put it another way,” he said.
“They faced tough conditions out there but they stood their ground.”
