With bushfires burning out of control across the state, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared a state of emergency at the request of Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The decision coincides with Sydney's first catastrophic fire danger forecast since new fire danger ratings were introduced 10 years ago, and comes after Ms Berejiklian also received advice from police and emergency services minister David Elliott, and other frontline agencies.
More than 850,000 hectares of land in NSW has already burned during this year's extended fire season.
A statewide total fire ban was announced on Monday, and the Far South Coast Rural Fire Service said the region is set to experience very high to severe fire danger rating over coming days. On Monday, the predicted fire danger level for the Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions for Tuesday was raised to catastrophic.
Local Bega Valley SES members are assisting the emergency response efforts in Northern NSW, with Eden's Neville Cowgill flying to Glenn Innes to help support the logistics team.
Three other local team members recently returned from deployments to Glen Innes.
Cass Whyman, a pool service technician from Tura Beach travelled to help with logistics, Gunter Baurhenn, a retired electronic engineer from Bega supported teams as a radio operator, and Pam Cocks, a school administrator from Eden supported teams in the Incident Control Centre.
"The scale of the incidents that Northern NSW is currently facing depend heavily on the ability of logistics teams in keeping supplies and resources moving to remote frontline teams," the SES posted to social media.
Last week, NSW Rural Fire Service Superintendent John Cullen said the northern fires had already "taken a lot of resources" in the areas of aviation and planning out of the area.
"There's a call every day for extra staff," he said. "The last two weeks have been a pretty serious fortnight."
The emergency declaration hands added powers to the commissioner, including the ability to direct any government agency to conduct or refrain from conducting its functions,controlling and coordinating the allocation of government resources and evacuating people from their property.
The Bureau of Meteorology has also predicted damaging winds on Tuesday with gusts of as much as 90kmh for parts of the South Coast.
The total fire ban means no fire can be lit in the open, and all permits have been suspended.
"Our state has already been hit by some of the most devastating bushfires we have ever seen, with three lives lost and more than 150 structures destroyed," Ms Berejiklian said.
"With catastrophic weather conditions predicted for this week, particularly Tuesday with hot weather and strong winds, I have decided to take the commissioner's advice and make this declaration.
"It will ensure our state is best placed to respond to the predicted fire conditions."
The NSW RFS is urging residents to review or prepare bushfire survival plans and monitor emergency information via radio, and the NSW RFS Fires Near Me app.
