A man has died and multiple homes are feared lost in a bushfire near Kempsey in New South Wales as firefighters work to contain the Willi Willi fire that has burned through more than 11,000 hectares.
NSW police confirmed on Tuesday morning that a man had died on a rural property 30km west of Kempsey.
Emergency services were called to Temagog late on Monday night after concerns were raised that a 56-year-old man was missing after a bushfire passed through the area.
Officers found the man’s body about 100m from a destroyed bulldozer. He was yet to be formally identified on Tuesday morning but was believed to be a local property owner.
Supt Shane Cribb said investigators believed the man had been trying to stop the fire from reaching his home.
“We do believe that he was perhaps putting in some lines to try and prevent the fire,” he said. “That will be part of the investigation.
“The family are devastated, as you would imagine.”
Cribb said it had been a “terrible” challenge accessing the property to find the man. “At the end of the day, our job is to protect life and property and if we can, we will,” he said.
The senior officer vowed to take action if he received information about people lighting fires during a total fire ban, as the NSW Rural Fire Service and police continued to investigate the cause of the blaze.
The RFS commissioner, Rob Rogers, said the death was a “tragic reminder of how deadly some of these fires are”.
It was the second bushfire-related death this bushfire season. A volunteer firefighter died after suffering a medical episode while fighting a fire near Kyogle at the weekend.
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said the death was “very, very terrible news”. “We pass on our condolences to that individual’s family and their loved ones and colleagues,” he said.
The Willi Willi fire was one of 77 active fires across NSW on Tuesday morning. Almost 30 were not yet contained.
While conditions have eased overnight, firefighters will work throughout the day to establish containment lines around a large number of fires.This footage from the Willi Willi Rd Fire was captured last night, as strong southerly winds impacted the fire ground. pic.twitter.com/rkV4EqZKS0
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 16, 2023
The blaze remained at a watch-and-act alert level, burning in the Moparrabah area west of Kempsey towards Willawarrin. It had spread more than 10,900 hectares and was yet to be contained.
The RFS district manager, Liz Ferris, said there were unconfirmed reports of multiple properties being lost. “We have our building impact assessment teams out looking,” she said at about noon on Tuesday. “They have heard of three unconfirmed reports at the moment.”
Ferris hoped the fire could be contained within the next five days, with challenging weather predicted for the weekend.
Rogers said the fire crews’ focus had been on protecting properties and creating fire breaks but would move to a more strategic approach to contain the fire.
“There’s no doubt that fire will still be active when we go back into the weekend’s warmer weather again, so that’s something that we’ll be considering about what that fire will do when fire danger rises again on the weekend,” he said.
Kempsey is forecast to reach a top of 29C on Saturday and 32C on Sunday.
Park urged NSW residents to be prepared for a “very difficult summer period”.
“What we’re facing is very hot, dry [and] potentially very windy conditions, and that means that people need to take some responsibility in ensuring they have a plan to exit and get away,” he said. “That’s the responsibility for all of us.”
