An Abermain resident who nearly lost his property in this week’s blaze says anyone who intentionally starts a bushfire is “sick”.
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Allan Stacey and his family were forced to protect their Charles Street home on Tuesday and Wednesday as the fire surged towards their property and passed within metres of their house.
Mr Stacey said the family cars were packed and facing towards the end of the driveway so they could make a quick escape if their attempt to save their home went awry.
Police say the fire, which burnt more than 800 hectares of land at Abermain as it headed towards Kurri Kurri, was deliberately lit. Investigators are looking for two men, about 183cm tall, and a juvenile who was seen leaving the area on a trike.
“I’m the treasurer of the motorbike club and the club patron – trikes are extremely rare,” Mr Stacey said.
“They’re sick people, it just comes down to that. There’s no other explanation – they get a kick out of seeing the fire.
“You just don’t know what their mindset is. It might be gratification for them to see the fire, but the results that happen and the catastrophic results – house could burn down, people could get killed – I just don’t know what they’re thinking.
“I know what I’d like to do with them, but we’ll let the courts deal with that.”
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Firefighters got a reprieve on Thursday as cool weather and rain arrived in the Lower Hunter.
It came after two days of temperatures that reached the high 30s earlier in the week which, when coupled with erratic wind conditions, created a testing environment for emergency services.
“This one was all over the place," Mr Stacey said.
“At one stage we had the wind blowing north east, then half an hour later it was blowing back in the opposite direction. It was a firefighter’s nightmare – absolute nightmare.”
Rural Fire Service Inspector Paul McGrath said 120 firefighters from the RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW had been enlisted to battle the blaze, while several helicopters water-bombed the fire front.
Emergency crews monitored the situation as the fire moved towards Kurri Kurri on Wednesday afternoon, but there was no need to evacuation the facility.