It's been another exhausting day for firefighters and regional communities across two states. Conditions have eased but not in time to prevent four homes being destroyed in blazes on the Queensland New South Wales border. Many residents spent a terrifying night fighting intense flames threatening their properties.
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00:00 For many, it was a night from hell. Fires on the NSW/QLD border raged into the morning.
00:07 It was the most scariest thing we've ever experienced.
00:12 The wind was just sucking into the fire. The fire was drawing it in. It was like some vortex
00:18 tornado thing. Just crazy.
00:21 A huge, fast-moving fire in Wollongarra destroyed four homes. Power lines were burnt, leaving
00:27 many residents without electricity. It was a pretty horrifying experience. Yeah,
00:32 never seen anything like it. In Jennings, people were evacuated in the
00:36 middle of the night, but the danger was far from over when they returned home.
00:41 They let people come back here at about half past three, but when they came back, that
00:46 whole paddock was on fire. But one by one, the multiple emergency level
00:50 fires were all downgraded as a change in weather brought welcome relief.
00:56 It was cooler and a change in wind direction, so southerly change went through there, which
01:00 brings cooler, moist air. Three RFS volunteers were taken to hospital
01:05 after their truck rolled over, but they've since been released.
01:09 Further south in Tabulum, a fire burned through 1,300 hectares of land.
01:16 It was coming quick and it was very angry. But today, it had calmed down enough for those
01:21 left to fight the fires on their own. So wherever I've got smouldery spots, like
01:27 over there, I've just got to keep on top of them.
01:29 While conditions have eased today, they're set to become even more favourable for the
01:33 rest of the week, with rain predicted for some parts of northern New South Wales by
01:38 the weekend. The rain won't be enough to extinguish all
01:42 the fires. I would expect we'll be there for a couple
01:45 of weeks before we'll even be able to declare any of these fires out.
01:48 But the battle of the bushfire season has just begun.
01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]