Name: Homes destroyed in Central Coast bushire
Uploaded: 2025-12-07T06:30:20.511Z
Duration: 2 min 37 s
Description: Residents of Koolewong on the NSW Central Coast have returned to the ruins of their homes, destroyed by a bushfire that forced them to run for their lives. Authorities are still assessing the damage, but as many as 16 houses may have been lost.

Residents of Koolewong on the NSW Central Coast have returned to the ruins of their homes, destroyed by a bushfire that forced them to run for their lives. Authorities are still assessing the damage, but as many as 16 houses may have been lost.

Koolewong

Sixteen homes were destroyed by fast-moving bushfires in Koolewong, New South Wales, as residents had little time to save belongings and were forced to evacuate quickly. The fires, fueled by a heatwave and strong winds, prompted extensive firefighting efforts, including the use of air assets and emergency evacuations.

Authorities reported significant property loss but confirmed that no lives were lost. Survivors are now eligible for disaster funding, and officials have cautioned that this incident may signal a particularly dangerous fire season for the region.

Homes destroyed in Central Coast bushire

This wasn't a firefight, there was only time to flee and today the clearing smoke revealed the stark reality of all that was taken by the ferocious flames. Everything, everything, you know, I've got several vintage cars in there that are gone. I collect old books about aviation, some of them are extremely rare, they're all gone. Craig Saxon got his wife and pets out before doing what he could for his neighbours. Johnny down the road and I were the last ones out of here because we were sort of helping other people out. What they ran from came fast and fierce. If they couldn't carry it, it couldn't be saved. The alloy wheels on that trailer you can see they've just melted. That's, yeah, yeah, so, but we'll rebuild. Michael Green lives down the hill. He ran towards the flames, armed only with a garden hose, until police insisted it was time to go. And today it's still here, which I don't know if that's just through good luck or, anyway, don't know, mate. Others could only watch from safety as their luck ran out. We got out, we were sitting down at the park with all our neighbours and we could see all their houses burning, it was so sad. We were not happy, you can imagine. For firefighters, the battle raged on today as blazes changed direction and hotspots flared near more homes. Yesterday's conditions, the culmination of a heatwave and strong winds, kept air assets operating into the night. Desperate for a cool change, even that arrived violently, with lightning igniting new threats. There were many fire starts happened with that dry lightning coming through. There was a little bit of rain that came with it, which helped it a little bit. Those cooling conditions are now easing the threat for multiple fires across New South Wales, but several are still being battled. Obviously a very difficult 24 hours. While the property loss has been substantial, authorities are just grateful no lives were lost by the speed at which this fire took these homes here at Cooliewong. They are warning, though, this could be a sign of things to come, with a particularly dangerous season ahead for a summer we've only just begun. We can replace buildings, we can replace homes, we can't replace people. I can't stress that message enough. Those survivors are now eligible for disaster funding. We'll set up a financial support so we can wrap around these families as best we possibly can in the lead up to Christmas. We survived and so did the animals and that's the main thing. Chris Campy, 10 News.

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