Metres from death: Heartstopping moment firefighters drive through scorched bushland before a massive burning tree falls on to the road
- A burnt tree landed on the road just metres in front of a firetruck on Saturday
- The tree slammed onto the road in Currowan, on the NSW south coast
- More than 140,000 hectares of land has been burnt by the Currowan bushfire
- The firfighter behind the wheel turned to the left to avoid being crushed
A quick-thinking firefighter avoided disaster when a burned out tree landed on the road just metres in front of the vehicle.
Dashcam footage captured the tree slamming on to the road while the firies travelled beside spotfires in Currowan, on the NSW south coast, on Saturday night.
The firefighter behind the wheel had just seconds to react and managed to turn the truck slightly to the left to avoid potential catastrophe.
‘That was close,’ one of the relieved crew members could be heard saying.
The firefighter behind the wheel had just seconds to act, before managing to turn the truck slightly to the left to avoid being crushed.
Dashcam footage captured the tree slamming onto the road while the firies travelled on the next to raging bushfires in Currowan, on the NSW south coast
‘Good job, Tony,’ said another.
The fire truck then drove around the fallen tree, which took up the full width of the road.
The footage came just days after two firefighters were killed by a falling tree in Buxton, south of Sydney.
Volunteer firies Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, and Geoffrey Keaton, 32, were killed when a burnt tree fell and crushed their fire truck, causing it to roll.
So far, more than 140,000 hectares of land has been burnt by the Currowan bushfire, which started in the Shoalhaven.
The blaze has torn through Burrill Lake and Morton National Park in the north, Braidwood in the west, and Batemans Bay in the south.
Emergency warnings weren’t downgraded until the early hours of Sunday morning.
‘We are expecting another heavy toll unfortunately with estimates that property loss could be in the dozens of buildings including homes, outbuildings, sheds and businesses,’ NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.
The areas hardest hit include Lithgow and along the Bells Line of Road in the upper Blue Mountains, and the Wollondilly Shire villages of Buxton and Bargo, which were ravaged for the second time in three days.