A FIRE completely destroyed a large garage on a property on Rainforest Parkway at the Ringlands estate at Narooma on Sunday.
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The fire broke at around noon sending large plumes of black smoke into the air with explosions from equipment and vehicles, including a fibreglass boat and four-wheel-drive.
Four trucks with 14 firefighters from RFS brigades responded as well as a truck from Fire and Rescue NSW with four firefighters on board.
A RFS spokesperson said the fire broke out at 12.25pm and involved a shed with a boat and a four-wheel-drive as well as attached granny flat, all of which were completely lost.
Two whirly bird vents located on the top of the shed roof popped off the roof and flew in the air early in the event.
The explosions were from the volume of fuel in the boat and four-wheel-drive, as well as air canisters in inflating lifejackets in the shed.
Terry Gillam lives a couple of kilometres away and said he was alerted by an explosion that rocked his house.
He said he was concerned for the safety of firefighters who had to duck to cover as the explosions went off.
Forensic police officers examined the scene on Monday suspecting an electrical fault started the fire.
Bad bushfire season ahead
LOCAL Rural Fire Service brigades were kept busy on the weekend by not only the garage fire at Narooma on Sunday but also a couple of escape pile burns.
RFS community safety officer Marty Webster said two landowners of Bodalla and Cobargo getting in pile burns before the Bush Fire Danger Period (BFDP) began on Monday were surprised to have their fires get away.
“Given how wet it has been recently, they were surprised,” he said.
This comes as a report from the Bushfire & Natural Hazards Co-operative Research Council was released yesterday predicting Australia will experience a trend towards an increasing number of bad fire weather days in its southern and eastern states with fire seasons that begin earlier and last longer than in earlier decades.
The start of the statutory Bush Fire Danger Period for Eurobodalla and Bega shires began on Monday.
Any person wishing to light a fire now requires a permit.
“Whilst recent rainfalls have provided some relief from what has been a very dry winter, spring on the Far South Coast is traditionally our windy season. As we witnessed last year, these windy conditions are when we tend to see fires escape and become difficult to control,” RFS Superintendent John Cullen said.