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When Garry Morgan returned to his property on the end of the week, his home on the coastal fringe was encircled by a dense smoke column. Within twenty-four hours later, a pair of homes on his street were consumed, and the nearby woodland was transformed into blackened skeletal remains.

A Town Grappling with Loss

The community of Bulahdelah, approximately 235km north of Sydney, has become at the centre of a tragedy after a veteran firefighter died on Sunday evening when he was struck by a falling tree. This signals a “foreboding start” to the bushfire season.

A total of four homes have been lost in the broader Bulahdelah area, including two on Emu Creek Road, where Morgan lives, one on the Pacific Highway and one south of the township.

“No words can express it,” he said. “My canine companions remained close, the fear was palpable.”

Scenes of Destruction and Resilience

Bulahdelah is a popular stopover on the Pacific Highway for travelers journeying up the mid-north coast to beach areas such as Seal Rocks, Forster and Port Macquarie.

On Monday afternoon, the highway south of town was blanketed in dense, ochre-hazed smoke. Helicopters hovered overhead, aiding firefighters on the ground who were working to contain a fire that had consumed 4,000 hectares since Friday.

Passing trucks slowed to observe road markers and reduce-speed signs, the blackened gum trees and burnt grass on each side of the highway evidence of how far the fire had swept through the adjacent Myall Lakes national park. It remained at a watch and act level on Monday evening.

The Nerve Centre for Firefighting

In Bulahdelah, though, it would appear as another ordinary day if not for the helicopters circling overhead and acrid odor hanging in the atmosphere.

A refueling point for aircraft has been set up at the town’s showground, converting it into a base for around 300 firefighters and volunteers who have come from across the state to help.

On Monday afternoon, cartons of water were being unloaded from trucks and lollies were being packaged into zip lock bags. One firefighter noted that they needed a water bottle every 20 minutes when on the active fire ground.

First-Hand Stories from the Blaze

Billows of smoke were continuing to emit from smoldering patches on Emu Creek Road, a winding rural street that follows a creek bed south of the township where two houses were lost.

On a fence post outside a burnt property, a scorched stuffed toy remained pinned to the log, still wearing a Christmas hat.

Down the road, Morgan sat on his porch with his two dogs, a small area of green surrounding his house the sole remnant of how the landscape used to look. Miraculously, his property was spared, despite his neighbour’s burning to the ground.

He remembered receiving a call from a friend at lunchtime on Saturday, warning him “you’ve got about half an hour and then a blaze will arrive”. His timing was precise.

“We hosed down the property and shed down, sprayed the fence line,” he said, and then his reaction turned to “alarm”. “I thought, ‘this is overwhelming’,” he said. “But I wasn’t leaving.”

Fortunately, firefighters surrounded the house, and succeeded in defending it. The bushfire passed over in about half an hour, sounding like “a roaring inferno”.

An Environment Altered

Morgan, who has resided at the same house for around 30 years, has not witnessed the land so dry.

“We used to get rain every week,” he said. “We’ve never had fires like this. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

On the same street, Jeff Curley was caring for his friend’s property which had also mostly been spared Saturday’s blaze, other than a damaged light on a car and a barrel of firewood stored for winter that had been reduced to ashes.

“I am very familiar with this area,” he said. “Previously a fire almost approached a nearby ridge and that was quite frightening then, but the wind changed.

“The conditions are far more arid now. Flames emerged on all sides, and the firies essentially protected it [the property].”

This experience wasn’t new for Curley, who came close to losing his home in Wattle Grove when fires swept through in 2019.

“You see people on the news say, ‘I can’t believe how fast it came’,” he said. “You think it’s over there, and all of a sudden it surrounds you. I understand the feeling. I told my friend to evacuate immediately, and he did.”

Official Response and Ongoing Threat

Kirsty Channon, public information officer for the NSW Rural Fire Service, said crews from multiple agencies had come from “across the coastal region” to assist in the containment effort and had done an “incredible work” protecting houses from being destroyed.

She said all agencies had “worked as one” after the tragic loss of one of their own.

“Firefighters is a close-knit group,” she said. “The threat persists.

“There have been instances of the Pacific Highway closing and reopening a few times, the fire jump backwards and forwards. It remains uncontained, it is expected to spread.”

Channon said efforts in the coming hours would center on the tiny township of Nerong, which was expected to be hit by the Pacific Highway blaze on Monday evening. Authorities advised locals to leave if not prepared, and prepare a bushfire survival plan.

“Spot fires are starting from storm activity a few days ago,” she said.

“The forecast is the mid-thirties with variable wind, and that’s been challenge - wind changes direction in the area.”