SYDNEY — Veteran firefighter John Lohan, 59, has been killed by a falling tree while battling a fast-moving blaze near Nerong, south of Bulahdelah, as separate NSW bushfires on the Central Coast destroyed at least 16 homes and triggered an arson investigation on Sunday night. Officials say the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service divisional commander was working to keep his crew safe on the fireground when the tree came down without warning, underscoring the deadly start to this summer’s fire season in New South Wales, Dec. 9, 2025.
‘Profound shock’ after death of veteran firefighter
Authorities have confirmed Lohan, based at the Lake Munmorah depot, was an almost 30-year veteran of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and a respected team leader who had deployed to major fires across the state, including the Black Summer emergency. He collapsed after being struck by the falling tree shortly before midnight on Little Nugra Road at Nerong, despite frantic efforts by colleagues to revive him.
NPWS managers described Lohan as a “treasured” member of the service and a highly experienced divisional commander who always put the safety of others first. In a statement published by ABC News, his family said the news of his death had come as a “profound shock” and remembered him as “a great father, loving brother, and wonderful friend” who would be “greatly missed.”
WorkSafe and police are investigating the circumstances of the incident, with a report to be prepared for the coroner. Union representatives say Lohan is the first NPWS firefighter to die on duty since 2011, a grim milestone that has shaken crews who continued to work containment lines around the Bulahdelah fire, which has burned more than 4,000 hectares of bush and threatened the village of Nerong.
Arson probe deepens as NSW bushfires raze Central Coast homes.
Further south, in Koolewong on the NSW Central Coast, a separate bushfire tore through steep streets and bushy gullies over the weekend, destroying at least 16 homes and damaging many more. Police from the arson squad are treating that blaze as suspicious after a red jerry can was recovered at the scene, and multiple crime scenes were declared, according to reporting in the Guardian.
Some houses are too structurally unsafe for investigators to enter, and residents have been told it may take days before they can return to inspect the ruins. The Koolewong blaze ignited during a burst of extreme heat, when temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius and strong northerly winds pushed flames towards bayside suburbs such as Phegans Bay and Woy Woy, part of the same cluster of NSW bushfires that scorched thousands of hectares across the Central Coast and Upper Hunter.
New season of NSW bushfires rekindles painful memories.
At the height of the weekend emergency, more than 60 fires were burning across the state, forcing evacuations, closing highways, and blanketing Sydney in smoke haze. Fire chiefs warn that, despite a forecast La Niña, this summer’s NSW bushfires could be severe as parched soils, high fuel loads, and unusual climate patterns collide after several wetter years that allowed vegetation to build up.
State climate agency AdaptNSW notes that during the 2019–20 Black Summer, around 2,500 homes were destroyed in New South Wales, and at least 1 billion animals were killed in NSW and Victoria, with the fires impacting the habitat of hundreds of threatened species. Those losses, outlined in its overview of climate change and bushfires and in the NSW Rural Fire Service’s 2020 bushfire inquiry report, prompted 76 recommendations to strengthen hazard reduction, evacuation planning, and community resilience.
Even before Black Summer, earlier NSW bushfires such as the 2013 Blue Mountains fires destroyed more than 200 homes and burned over 100,000 hectares, showing how quickly fire can overwhelm communities on the state’s forested fringe. A WWF-backed study reported in 2020 by the Guardian estimated that nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced nationally during the 2019–20 megafires, underlining the long-term ecological stakes of each new fire season.
Communities are grieving and preparing for what comes next.
In Bulahdelah and on the Central Coast, residents have begun the grim task of sifting through ash, lodging insurance claims, and finding temporary accommodation. At the same time, smoke still hangs over the hills. For many, the NSW bushfires have arrived earlier and more fiercely than expected, reviving the smell and anxiety of 2019 even as they pause to honour Lohan, whom colleagues and leaders say made the ultimate sacrifice to protect his community.
Authorities are urging households across fire-prone parts of the state to finalise bushfire survival plans, clear gutters and vegetation, and stay up to date with alerts on the NSW Rural Fire Service app and local radio. With NSW bushfires already killing one firefighter and destroying dozens of homes this season, emergency services say simple preparations now could prove critical when the next hot, windy day inevitably arrives.
