Anatolil TUBOLEC

Central Coast Ravaged

The Sun Herald

Sunday January 9, 1994

By KAREN DAVEY

THE NSW Central Coast was a disaster area yesterday as fires raged out of control, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

Fires across a 40km front were fanned by north-easterly winds, forcing thousands of people to flee to the beach or sleep on the football field outside the Central Coast Leagues Club at Gosford.

Bus loads of residents and holiday-makers ordered to evacuate Kariong, Woy Woy, Umina, Ettalong and Brisbane Waters, poured into the makeshift evacuation centre at Gosford.

Last night, the 360patient Gosford Hospital, threatened by a huge blaze at West Gosford, was put on stand-by evacuation status. Fifty nurses and 20 medical interns were evacuated from the nearby nurses’ quarters as a precaution.

Second-year nurse, Jo Weeks, said all trainee medical staff were evacuated to the Gosford RSL Club.

“It’s scary and unsettling, especially since most of us don’t have family on the Central Coast to turn to. Nurse Kitty Hardman said the hospital had taken elderly and retired people from evacuated nursing homes and retirement villages at Wyoming and Point Clare.

The families slept in tents, deck chairs and cars, unaware that the raging fires had destroyed their homes. “The playing field is a mass of airbeds, deck chairs, blankets and Esky’s,” Gosford constable, Lachlan Gunn, said.

Families with small children and elderly people slept on gym mats in the auditorium of the Leagues Club to escape the heat and smoke.

Fleeing families were initially evacuated to Mt Penang, near Kariong, but were transferred to Gosford when the fires struck at nearby Somersby.

Kariong evacuee Debbie Land arrived home from a Queensland holiday less than 24 hours before she was evacuated with her husband and six children, including one-year-old triplets, Andrew, Steven and Jason.

“All we managed to pack were photograph albums and videos of our wedding,”she said.

St John’s Ambulance officer, Kevin White, said the situation at Gosford was”chaotic”.

“We are continually treating people for smoke inhalation, exhaustion and stress,” Mr White said. “We’re patrolling the parks offering people assistance as they arrive throughout the day and night.”

Sydney-Newcastle trains were prevented from running after the fire jumped the Mooney-Mooney Bridge at Hawkesbury and destroyed wooden rail sleepers, power lines and buckled the track.

The rail link is not expected to be re-opened for another 48 hours.

Yesterday, hundreds of motorists were stranded on the F3 freeway at Hawkesbury and Freemans Water Hole, near Toronto. Emergency food and water supplies were rushed to the motorists who were suffering from severe dehydration.

The anxious vigil of Central Coast residents who had not received word to evacuate their homes was intensified when an electricity failure meant they were unable to monitor the progress of the fire on their radios or television sets.

Wyong police officer, Sgt Tony Tubolec, who was evacuating residents from the Central Mangrove region, east of Wyong, said most people agreed to leave their properties but “others refused to leave” because they were reluctant to abandon their home.

“But a lot of people don’t want to leave because they want to protect their homes, and others think evacuation is a case of overkill because they can’t see the flames.

“But property can be rebuilt but you only have one chance with life.”

Constable David Dee came across a fresh outbreak of fire when he was sent out to set up a police blockade to prevent motorists travelling on Old Northern Road, south of Kulnura.

“I’d spent three days up here and had seen a lot of smoke but no flames. I was driving along a dirt track and I could see the red tinge in the smoke. Then, suddenly I was confronted with a wall of flame. I got out of there quick-smart.”

Motels in the popular holiday havens of Wyong, Gosford, Tuggerah and The Entrance were booked out last night by stranded motorists.

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