A calm, collected evacuation took place in disastrous circumstances on Wednesday.
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Bomaderry Veterinary Hospital vet Gary Bryce and fellow staff members were mid-surgery when they got a knock on the door at around 10.30am.
A police officer told them, “you may need to evacuate."
The vets worked to complete the operation.
Ten minutes later and a contingent of police arrived at the door - it was time to go.
Thick smoke blanketed the area, visibility was down to metres, and brave firefighters from Fire and Rescue NSW and the Rural Fire Service were fighting the raging, oncoming beast.
Day almost turned to night as the smoke blocked out the sun.
“Everyone saw the smoke coming and realised it (fire) was pretty close, we heard things on the radio and there were police knocking on the door saying you’re going to have to get out of here,” Mr Bryce said.
“I had been inside the building and didn’t see too much of what was going outside, but as soon as I walked out, smoke was just horrific and the wind, it was pretty obvious we’d have to get out.”
Aided by police, the vets loaded every last animal into cars and drove to a safe place.
“One of the vets that works with us lives in Bomaderry and one of the nurses lives in Bomaderry up and away from the fire, so we were able to take all of the animals to one of those houses,” Mr Bryce said.
“We managed to contact the owners and get all of the owners reunited with their animals by about 2 or 3pm.”
Mr Bryce said his “fantastic” staff were to thank for the swift and successful evacuation.
“We were pretty well organised before we were noticed to evacuate,” he said.
“(We got out) thanks to the good work of our staff.”