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(CNN) - As forest fires burn out of control in Australia, devouring entire cities and leaving behind little more than charred remains of houses, remarkable survival stories emerge in the state of New South Wales.
Steve Harrison, a 67-year-old potter, hid in an improvised ceramic oven to insulate himself from the flames while his property was destroyed. Harrison told Australian public broadcaster ABC that he stayed to protect his home in Balmoral, a community in southwest Sydney that has been devastated by the flames.
"I ran to my truck, but my garden was already on fire, the entrance was on fire, the road was on fire, so I couldn't evacuate," Harrison said. "Actually the day before I had built a small oven in the back - an oven the size of a coffin - large enough to crawl in."
Harrison hid in the oven for half an hour while a "fire storm" lashed.
“It was huge, it glowed in orange-red tones everywhere. It was scary. I was terrified, ”he recalled. "I could have (died) if I hadn't thought about plan B. In that little oven I made I had a fire extinguisher, a bucket of water, a bottle of drinking water and a fire blanket."
The head of the New South Wales government, Gladys Berejiklian, told reporters at a press conference this Sunday that "there was not much left" of Balmoral, home to some 400 people and where there are 150 properties. It was the second time in three days that fires devoured the area.
"We have the devastating news that there is not much left in the city of Balmoral," Berejiklian said, adding that "it could take years to rebuild it."
An excited firefighter responded to claims that emergency services did not do enough to save the city. The firefighter, named Greg, had a lump in his throat as he told the 2GB radio station about the "horrible" conditions that the Rural Fire Service of New South Wales endured.
“Balmoral has not been deleted from the map. Not all was lost. It's still there, ”he said.
"The insinuation that we fail to protect that town ... I don't know how the other boys will take it, but I personally resent the insinuation that we lost the town because we didn't lose it," he said, adding that his companions are hospitalized.
The State Rural Fire Service said Monday that conditions had "begun to abate", giving firefighters a break to "identify and strengthen containment lines (of the flames)."
However, slightly cooler temperatures will only be temporary, as meteorologists predict a return of heat conditions by the end of the week.
According to Nine News Australia, a CNN affiliate, about 200 fires burn across the country, nine people have died and more than 1,100 properties have been destroyed.
The relationship with climate change
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has been heavily criticized for going on vacation with his family to Hawaii while thousands of firefighters worked to contain the fires, on Monday rejected claims about “reckless” cuts and “job destroyers” to the Pollutant but lucrative coal industry.
"Australia is taking action in relation to climate change," he said in an interview with the Nine News Today program. “What we will not do is get involved in reckless objectives that harm the labor market and drown the economy.
"A government does not address sentiment," he added. "The government is addressing the facts and what needs to be done to protect the environment and its sustainability for the future, to protect our economy, jobs and livelihoods on which Australians depend."
Forest fires, which have been burning for two months, have been exacerbated by the strong winds that fan the flames and spread dangerous coals, and by rising temperatures, including a record heat wave that began earlier this week.
Morrison and his government have been criticized for not doing enough to prevent the climate crisis. Australia was listed as the country with the worst performance in climate change policy in the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index published this month. The report, which analyzed country emissions, renewable energy, use and energy policy, criticized the government for being "an increasingly regressive force."
However, the prime minister has acknowledged that there was a connection between weather events, fires and the global climate emergency. At a press conference on Sunday, Morrison said "there is no doubt" about the links between "broader issues of global climate change and climate events worldwide."
"But I am sure that people will also recognize that the direct connection to any single fire event is not a credible suggestion to make that connection," he added.
Morrison insists that the nation will meet its emissions targets by 2030, which it committed to at the 2015 United Nations climate summit, when it was set to reduce emissions between 26% and 27% below 2005 levels .
Australia Fire Forests
