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General News

28 October, 2024

Cloncurry's close call as fire threatened township

Residents were put on alert last Friday as authorities feared the blaze could reach Cloncurry homes.

By Troy Rowling

Queensland Rural Fire Service incident controller Sarah McCarron and North West Gulf Inspector Shane Hopton were able to direct Cloncurry fire crews from the fire incident control centre in Mount Isa.
Queensland Rural Fire Service incident controller Sarah McCarron and North West Gulf Inspector Shane Hopton were able to direct Cloncurry fire crews from the fire incident control centre in Mount Isa.

Grazed paddocks and sudden wind direction changes helped prevent a rapidly advancing fire from reaching Cloncurry homes and businesses.

Following a three-day aerial water bombing campaign that saw hundreds of thousands of litres sprayed on the fire front by four fixed wing air tractors and two rotary winged helicopters, combined with dousing rainfall on Sunday, the fire was between containment lines on Tuesday.

Fire crews continued to watch over the massive smouldering landscape.

However, a serious crisis was averted in Cloncurry at about 3.20am on Friday morning when households received text messages warning residents to prepare for evacuation after fire crews became aware that a rapidly moving fire at the Selwyn Range, south of Cloncurry, was travelling along Powerhouse Road and was within 10km of the town.

Queensland Rural Fire Service incident controller Sarah McCarron said the fire had moved about 30km in a single day, which was beyond the predictions made by specialists.

She said fire crews and aerial water bombing support from Mount Isa were immediately deployed at the same time the warning text messages were sent out to Cloncurry residents.

Ms McCarron said that as the fire moved closer to the town, it confronted paddocks with a far reduced fuel load, having been used for cattle grazing recently, which slowed the spread of the blaze.

This provided precious time for crews and landholders to install fire breaks and increase strategic aerial water bombing efforts.

Wind conditions also eased which further slowed the fire spread.

Multiple strike crews of additional firefighters were quickly deployed from Townsville and the south-east corner, while additional fixed wing aircraft arrived from central Queensland.

Ms McCarron said on Monday that more than 40 firefighters remained in Cloncurry.

“The fire threat has been significantly reduced, the fire is contained but the community should remain alert, it may be smouldering for a few more days and those with respiratory conditions should be vigilant,” she told North West Weekly.

Retired Cloncurry firefighter Joe Bakhash, who spent more than four decades in the local auxiliary crew, said that similar evacuation warnings were quite rare in the town.

The only time when an actual evacuation took place in his entire career was when patients at the Cloncurry Hospital were removed in August 2012.

Fire breaks and backburning proved successful in containing the blaze.
Fire breaks and backburning proved successful in containing the blaze.
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