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General News

16 September, 2024

In-flight wifi helped fire boss as neighbour praises first responders

Kyle Macnamara has praised the quick thinking of firefighters who saved his family property.

By Troy Rowling

Curry Street resident Kyle Macnamara looks at the fire aftermath that threatened his home last week.
Curry Street resident Kyle Macnamara looks at the fire aftermath that threatened his home last week.

Mount Isa resident Kyle Macnamara has praised the swift actions of firefighters and police that saved his family property during the roaring blaze along the Duchess Road riverbed last week.

Mr Macnamara, who lives on nearby Curry Street, said there had been intermittent fires in the riverbed grass all week, including a small blaze in the car wrecker’s yard next door, so when he saw smoke on Thursday afternoon he was not too concerned.

He said council workers had been in the area just hours earlier pulling down trees and clearing debris to reduce the potential fuel load.

However, the wind gusts that afternoon pushed the blaze from the riverbed over the fence of the old car wrecker’s property, alighting the rows of car bodies and oil drums that spread the fire across the property at rapid speed.

Mr Macnamara told North West Weekly that flames rapidly climbed the surrounding trees, embers fell violently, powerlines were surrounded and heavy black fumes engulfed his backyard.

Next door, gas cylinders and old oil drums began exploding – which could be heard across the city – as hordes of onlookers gathered along Duchess Road while emergency crews rushed to the scene.

Police quickly jumped the fence and ordered his family’s immediate evacuation. Two constables also found two dogs nearby and carried them to safety.

Meanwhile, Queensland Fire Department Western Command Inspector Jarrod Olivero sat on a Qantas flight en route to Mount Isa airport.

He had been in Brisbane for scheduled meetings that week but the sheer volume of fire incidents that Mount Isa fire crews were battling caused him to make the decision to hurriedly return to the North West.

Fortunately, Mr Olivero had already contacted his colleagues at Townsville earlier that day, who agreed to transport six firefighters to Mount Isa on a commercial flight the same afternoon.

His Qantas flight had wifi, which enabled Mr Olivero to access the incident management software on his phone, where he saw there were two fire crews at Moondarra Road battling a fire that was threatening the Booster Pump Station at the same time the fire at Duchess Road riverbed was reported.

The fire at a car wrecker’s off Duchess Road threatened neighbouring properties.
The fire at a car wrecker's off Duchess Road threatened neighbouring properties.

By this time, the Moondarra fire had spread into the hills and was inaccessible to crews, which meant the scene was passed on to Mount Isa Water to monitor as the firefighters were relocated to the scene at Duchess Road.

The crews would return on the following night to contain another fire at Moondarra.

Mr Olivero began assisting to coordinate fire crews from his seat on the Qantas plane as every fire truck in Mount Isa and every available firefighter was deployed to the industrial area on the outskirts of Mount Isa.

Mr Olivero landed in the city at a similar time as the deployed Townsville firefighters and he transported them immediately to assist with the Duchess Road fire.

The fire scene they arrived at was complex – sheets of corrugated iron fencing had to be removed to allow access for crews, while firefighters had to be repeatedly evacuated from the blaze as the unpredictable explosions posed a serious threat.

Firefighters were routinely checked by paramedics at the scene as they suffered dehydration and exhaustion.

It took seven hours to bring the fire under control and crews remained there for a further 12 hours to monitor the area.

The house at the wrecker’s yard was not fire damaged.

An Ergon Energy spokesperson said power was switched off to 1858 properties near Duchess Road at about 6.40pm under direction from emergency services with most properties back online by 9.20pm.

Mr Macnamara’s home was among the last to have the power switched back on. He returned at about 8.30am the next morning.

He said fire had swept around the entire fenced perimeter of his property and a tree in the riverbed had fallen over and crushed a back gate, but there was no damage to his home. Mr Macnamara said the firefighters had even saved the family chickens – he returned to find the backyard coup drenched in water with the poultry safely housed inside.

“The firies thought of everything and they did a great job. There were flames as far as you could see and every couple of minutes there were those booming explosions. I’m amazed none of the embers started a fire on our house,” he said.

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