Breathtaking, terrifying footage has emerged of a cascade of fire gripping New South Wales’ Blue Mountains.
Bushfires have been ravaging South and Western Australia recently, sweeping across homes and habitats with little mercy, killing koalas and taking the lives of 10 people in the process.
The mega-blaze in the Gospers Mountain has been particularly destructive, stretching across 460,000 acres and along the Grose River – now, it’s crawling up the cliffs of the Grose Valley.
Check out the footage of the fire below:
The amazing footage was filmed by Blackheath local Kobe Byrant (not to be confused with basketball player Kobe Bryant), managing to catch the remarkable sight on camera just before a southerly wind hit at around 5:00pm on Saturday, December 21.
Byrant later uploaded it to his Instagram account, @bluemtns_explore, where the clip has since been viewed more than 35,000 times.
Alongside the video, the caption read:
All fire fighters are currently tackling blazes across the top of the mountain (Mt Vic, Blackheath, Mt Hay, Leura) Keep your Notifications switched on for ‘Fires Near Me’ APP and follow the @nswrfs direction. If you get asked to evacuate, do it #priorities #bluemountains.
The Gospers Mountain bushfire has been on the go since early December, ‘decimating’ the Grose Valley after three fire fronts merged.
Byrant, 24, is one of eight locals who offer tips to exploring the Blue Mountains, a major tourist destination in NSW. He told 9 News the fires are ‘unprecedented’, saying: ‘This is bigger than 2009 and 2013. This is the biggest fire Australia has ever seen, and the Blue Mountains has ever seen.’
Commenting on the effect on the community, Byrant added:
I saw people’s faces – desperation, fear, anxiety – it was all on people’s faces. Growing up here, everyone is used to the threat of bushfires… we’re used to sirens going off, but when it’s on your doorstep and it’s been going on for weeks you get tired. The mountains are like a ghost town at the moment.
The NSW Rural Fire Service are tired and exhausted. It’s been unrelenting for a month, there’s been no break and they’re not paid. They need more legs. A human body can only go so far.
A crew is only as strong as the community behind them. So please donate what you can; kind words, foods like non-perishables, water, and fire-proof your house. Just cleaning your gutters can make the difference between saving your home. All it takes is one ember.
As the blazes continue to burn across the country, NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons estimates that dozens of homes have been lost as a result of ‘widespread damage and destruction’.
Currently, more than 105 bush and grass fires are burning across NSW – with 59 yet to be contained.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.