Julie Bannister is staring down the biggest bushfire of her life, refusing to leave her coastal Queensland retreat even as her neighbours’ properties burn around her.
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“We’re used to fires, but not as big this,” Ms Bannister told Brisbane Times.
“This is the biggest one we’ve ever lived through.
“You can hear it roaring, it sounded like a jet plane coming.”
By Sunday evening, the unusually ferocious blaze on the central Queensland coast had already burnt 9000 hectares of land, sending flames 12 metres into the air and was expected to spread further overnight.
Firefighters had been urging residents of Deepwater, just south of Agnes Water and about 60 kilometres north-west of Bundaberg, to evacuate since lunch time.
Police declared an emergency situation at 1.45pm, broadening it just before 5pm to take in a wider swathe from the mouth of Baffle Creek back to Oyster Creek.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk joined emergency services in begging for residents in the affected area to flee their homes.
“We’ve got a very small window of opportunity now for residents to leave so if you are living in those areas of Baffle Creek and Deepwater we really do need you to listen to authorities and please for the sake of your family please listen and please leave,” she said, on Sunday afternoon.
But Ms Bannister decided to stay even as she said neighbouring homes and businesses had been completely destroyed.
"It’s like a war zone,” Ms Bannister said.
“The property next door is all burnt out, they’ve lost everything
“There’s a man here, he’s got honey bees, lost the lot. Lost everything he’s worked for.”
The retreat owner described the fire as totally out of control but said she had been carrying out burn-offs since July, so her property was nice and green.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services fire behaviour analyst Andrew Sturgess said the combination of fire and weather conditions was a rare event.
“It’s not a run of the mill fire by any stretch,” he said.
“If you’ve seen fires before and you’ve stayed at home, this is not like those other fires. This is a fire you need to pay particular attention to.
“This fire will continue to burn and spread right through [Sunday] night.”
Inspector Sturgess said on Sunday afternoon there were 33 fire trucks on scene, another 9 on their way, more than 100 staff on the ground and six aircraft trying to deal with the fire.
Another Deepwater resident, Julez Ransley, told ABC Capricornia she could only see a few metres in front of her on her property.
"We burnt our property off in August so we should be ok," she said.
"(The fire) is on the property next door, we cannot leave now even if we wanted to."
The exclusion zone made under the Public Safety Preservation included areas within Deepwater Drive and Deepwater Road, Deepwater Road and Matchbox Road intersections including Matchbox Road and Capricornia Drive, Capricornia Drive and Seabreeze Road.
It stretched from the mouth of Baffle Creek to the junction of Oyster Creek and along Oyster Creek to Maude Hill Road.
An evacuation centre was established at Miriam Vale Community Centre on Blomfield Street.
At 10pm on Sunday, police were unable to confirm how many residents had been evacuated.
Emergency services advised Wartburg State School would be closed on Monday due to the fire.
