Potter Steve Harrison, 67, hid in a makeshift ceramic coffin in his backyard as a raging bushfire swept through his home
An artist is lucky to be alive after hiding out in a makeshift coffin he built a day before a raging firestorm swept over his property.
Steve Harrison was left to fend for himself as the ferocious Green Wattle Creek fire made its way to his home in Balmoral in the NSW Southern Highlands at about 1pm on Saturday.
The 67-year-old potter’s wife had already fled, but he chose to stay back and defend his property.
He had a sudden change of heart when the flames intensified, but by then it was too late.
‘I ran to my ute but my garden was already on fire, the driveway was on fire, the road was on fire so I couldn’t evacuate,’ he told ABC.
Mr Harrison’s home in Balmoral, NSW, was safe but his pottery shed and kiln factory were burnt to the ground (Pictured: Damage to another Balmoral home)
The small town of Balmoral was devastated by the Green Wattle Creek fire, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian admitting ‘there’s not much left’
Mr Harrison opted for his plan B – to hide in a coffin-sized kiln he had built the day before with ceramic fibre.
He ran and climbed into the makeshift coffin which was stocked up with water, his laptop, a fire blanket and an extinguisher.
‘I was in there for half an hour while the firestorm went over. It was huge, just glowing orange-red everywhere. Just scary. I was terrified.
‘It burnt down our pottery building, our kiln factory, and our woodshed… I count my blessings and my improvised kiln building skills.’
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian, said ‘catastrophic’ fire conditions on Saturday had destroyed communities.
‘We’ve got the devastating news there’s not much left in the town of Balmoral,’ she said.
The community was already reeling after being hit on Thursday when the flames returned on Saturday as the state faced catastrophic fire danger.
Assessment teams are going in to determine when it will be safe for people to go home.
‘If people have lost their properties they still want to go back to see what’s left and if there is anything they can salvage,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
‘We know that’s part of the recovery. We want people to have access to their land as soon as they can but it has to be safe.’
The Liberal leader said the devastation was ‘shocking’.
Mr Harrison hid in his coffin for half an hour as the firestorm swept over (pictured running pottery classes above)
The federal and state governments have extended emergency relief funding to Wollondilly and Wingecarribee council areas.
A dozen councils areas across NSW now have access to more than $60 million in joint funding, Ms Berejiklian said on Sunday.
‘We’re not just here today and tomorrow. We’ll be with you in the weeks and months and – in some communities – years during the rebuilding process.’
NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons earlier said ‘dozens’ of homes may have been lost when bushfires raged across NSW on Saturday.
Most of the losses were from the Green Wattle Creek fire, the huge Gospers Mountain blaze northwest of Sydney and the Currowan bushfire on the South Coast.
‘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,’ Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney.
Fire and Rescue NSW duty commander Inspector Kernin Lambert said the Green Wattle Creek fire was deadly on Thursday.
‘Around the Balmoral village, we had two fire fronts come together and they merged,’ he told ABC TV at the time.
‘We were experiencing firestorm-type conditions.’
Remains of a property devastated by the raging firestorm which swept Balmoral last week
Smoke still surrounds the properties as firefighters salvage what they can from the wreck
Volunteer RFS firefighters Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, died later on Thursday night when a tree fell into the path of their tanker in neighbouring Buxton.
Conditions are expected to remain favourable over coming days allowing firefighters to work to contain fires encroaching on communities, particularly in the Blue Mountains region to the west of Sydney.
But authorities stated that large fires would continue to burn across New South Wales without significant rainfall, which is not forecast for many weeks.
‘That’s still a way to go,’ state Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said on Sunday.
‘We’re still talking four to six weeks at best before we start to see a meaningful reprieve in the weather.’
The states of South Australia and Victoria have also faced extreme fire conditions in recent days, with authorities in the former saying on Sunday that 72 homes had been destroyed by one fire.