1994 eastern seaboard fires

The fires caused mass evacuations of many thousands of people, claimed four lives, destroyed some 225 homes and burned out 800,000 hectares (2,000,000 acres) of bushland.

From 27 December 1993 to 16 January 1994, over 800 severe fires burned along the coastal areas of New South Wales, affecting the state's most populous regions.

The 800,000 hectare spread of fires were generally contained within less than 100 kilometres from the coast, and many burned through rugged and largely uninhabited country in national parks or nature reserves.

The shires from Coffs Harbour to Tweed Heads and inland to Casino and Kyogle were declared a State of Emergency on January 7, as 68 fires raged.

[5] On the south coast, fires ignited at Pretty Beach in the Murramarang National Park on 5 January, threatening Bendalong and Manyana, where hundredsd were evacuated.

[6] Flames first struck the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south on 5 January, when a fire, probably deliberately lit, burned out of the north east corner of the Royal National Park damaging houses at Bundeena and along Port Hacking.

[7][8] The Como/Jannali fire burnt 476 hectares and destroyed 101 houses - more than half of the total homes lost in New South Wales during the January emergency period.

[9] Also on 8 January, fires had reached to within 1.5km of Gosford city centre, and some 5000 people had been evacuated over that weekend with homes destroyed at Somersby and Peats Ridge.

By the following day, the Mount Wilson fire was raging out of control out of the Grose Valley, with 30 metre high flames, it consumed homes at Winmalee and Hawkesbury Heights.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Blue Mountains were full of dry undergrowth in January 1994, having not had a significant bushfire for 20 years.

[21] On 9 January, The Sunday Age reported that the Australian Defence Force had deployed 400 troops, 25 helicopters and aircraft, and that Prime Minister Paul Keating had cut short his holiday to receive a briefing on the crisis and inspect firefighting efforts with the NSW Premier John Fahey.

Keating announced that an additional 500 troops were on standby to assist with firefighting efforts and thanked the 7,500 volunteers who had been fighting 150 blazes since Boxing Day.

Residents of the entire metropolitan area of Sydney had to contend with ash raining down on them, and the sky remained a blazing orange colour for days afterwards.