For the first time in the 2019/2020 bushfire season, every single bushfire in New South Wales is contained.
The NSW Rural Fire Service confirmed on Thursday afternoon that all of the remaining bushfires across the state are now considered contained, in what can only be described as a huge win for firefighters and NSW residents.
Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers shared the announcement in a video later posted to Twitter.
“After what has been a truly devastating fire season for both firefighters and residents who have suffered through so much this season, all fires are now contained in NSW,” he said.
“Not all fires are out, there is still some fire activity in the far south of the state, but all fires are contained so we can really focus on helping people rebuild.”
In what has been a very traumatic, exhausting and anxious bush fire season so far, for the first time this season all bush and grass fires in NSW are now contained.
It has taken a lot of work by firefighters, emergency services and communities to get to this point. #nswrfs pic.twitter.com/RhqmcYhJ1j— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) February 13, 2020
The news comes after Sydney experienced the wettest four days since 1990, as torrential rain and storms ravaged much of NSW.
Thankfully, the weekend’s torrential rain across most of the state helped to extinguish a majority of the blazes, while bringing the remaining fires to a contained state. More than 30 fires were extinguished throughout the weekend including the Morton, Currowan and Gospers Mountain blazes among others.
As of Thursday afternoon’s announcement, 24 fires still burn across New South Wales. However, all of these blazes are contained and are expected to be extinguished over the coming days and weeks.
“Despite the fact [the rain] has caused damage, it has provided us with a significant amount of relief and the RFS is hopeful by the end of the week the last of those fires will be extinguished,” Emergency Services Minister David Elliot said in a press conference on Monday.
This year’s bushfire season has been the worst in recorded history, with nearly 2,500 homes lost, 25 fatalities and five million hectares of burnt land.
“The scale of these bushfires is unprecedented and NSW is experiencing the most devastating natural disaster in living memory,” NSW State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said of the bushfires, according to 7News.
