'Massive storm' causes significant damage to Bega Fire Control Centre

Last week’s heavy rains and storms that battered the NSW South Coast caused significant damage to the Bega Fire Control Centre.

However, the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) has assured the community that its operations in the region will not be impacted by the incident.

The “massive storm” on Friday night (10 January) caused a significant amount of damage to the fire control centre on Maher Street in Bega, NSW RFS district coordinator for the Far South Coast Chris Anderson said.

According to Weatherzone, 139.4 mm of rain fell on Bega over the 24 hours to 9 am on Saturday (11 January).

It was likely the town’s wettest day in January from almost 30 years of record-keeping, the website said.

Mr Anderson said the water damage to the fire control centre was discovered late on Sunday night (12 January). When he spoke to Region on Tuesday (14 January), he said contractors were currently assessing the damage to the building.

“What that looks like, we don’t fully know yet,” he said.

Mr Anderson assured the community that the incident was not going to impact on the RFS’s operations.

“We have ways around managing fire and incidents on the Far South Coast,” he said.

“We can still support the membership with whatever they need.

“There will be no impact to the volunteers or community whatsoever.”

He said the fire control centre hadn’t been closed. Staff were still working there and the damage was not going to impact training.

Training would be moved to other local fire stations and there was a second fire control centre in the Eurobodalla that could be used for incidents if needed.

“We are hoping that there isn’t too much damage and we can get this online really, really quickly,” Mr Anderson said.

“But again, we don’t know what damage actually is there at the moment.”

He said his team was working with Bega Valley Shire Council, which owns the building, during the insurance process.

The council had been “amazing” and “great through the whole process”, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, a council spokesperson said council staff were currently collaborating with the RFS and local contractors to ensure the building was safe and fully operational.

“There was water ingress in the roof and ceiling, and initial make-safe works have been completed,” they said.

“Remediation works are now underway in partnership with local contractors.”