Flowerdale Fires - Feb 2009
This is just a note to all those who have been caught in the Victorian bushfires that our thoughts go to you and your families. My family was lucky and after 3 days of hearing nothing from Dad and Thea who were on the farm in Flowerdale (an area hit hardest by the fires on Saturday), they rang through on Monday afternoon 9th Feb and said they were OK. We thought they were lucky to be alive. I have since visited the farm and taken some of the photos below. Here are Dads stories as close to his words as possible:
"On Thursday last week, we had planned to go to the farm and install the new sink hose for the pump on the dam. I had purchased a replacement hose the previous weekend, after I considered the existing hose was sus and it wasn't worth messing with. Note: The house is a log cabin home made mostly of treated pine, colourbond steel and sits on an embankment slightly up the hill, overlooking the valley. We maintain a box of firefighting necessities (clothes, gloves, goggles, masks, etc). The pump on the dam provides water for garden and firefighting, as needed. (The latter has not been needed in the last 18 years.) On Friday, the dam pump was not pumping water properly, to the house, so I fitted the new hose and fittings. I tested it many times that day but could not get it to pump properly. Thea arrived and after dinner, she insisted that I continue to try and fix it, as this was the fire-season and we were having a hot spell. We went to the pump, she held a torch and I found that once started, water was flowing out of the hose joints. Then I immediately saw the issue and tightened the hose fittings. Then whala, it was working properly. Phew! 2 people make it easier. I use 2 hose clips as I don't trust just one. I should also point out that I had buried the hose to the house to eliminate the UV damage caused to it.
"On Thursday last week, we had planned to go to the farm and install the new sink hose for the pump on the dam. I had purchased a replacement hose the previous weekend, after I considered the existing hose was sus and it wasn't worth messing with. Note: The house is a log cabin home made mostly of treated pine, colourbond steel and sits on an embankment slightly up the hill, overlooking the valley. We maintain a box of firefighting necessities (clothes, gloves, goggles, masks, etc). The pump on the dam provides water for garden and firefighting, as needed. (The latter has not been needed in the last 18 years.) On Friday, the dam pump was not pumping water properly, to the house, so I fitted the new hose and fittings. I tested it many times that day but could not get it to pump properly. Thea arrived and after dinner, she insisted that I continue to try and fix it, as this was the fire-season and we were having a hot spell. We went to the pump, she held a torch and I found that once started, water was flowing out of the hose joints. Then I immediately saw the issue and tightened the hose fittings. Then whala, it was working properly. Phew! 2 people make it easier. I use 2 hose clips as I don't trust just one. I should also point out that I had buried the hose to the house to eliminate the UV damage caused to it.
The power went off late Saturday afternoon, the wind was very strong from the North and the afternoon temperature was 44.6 degrees C. Not a good combination. The house water tanks and pumps were no good to us. In the afternoon, we started to notice big clouds rising above the forest on the southern side of the farm. We figured it was smoke and the plume grew considerably over the next few hours. We were listening to radio 774 who did a fantastic job making us aware of the fire at Wandong. We would be OK, while the wind was from the North, but a wind shift could be trouble. A few phone calls confirmed that the Flowerdale area was on alert. The smoke plumes continued to grow larger and had engulfed the sky to the South, by the evening.
The radio reported that a cold front was moving across Victoria and I knew that when it hit, the wind would suddenly change to the South-West, driving the fire towards the Mt. Disappointment State Forest, Kinglake and Flowerdale to the east of it. It was at this stage I thought that we would cop it too. We activated our fire plan, as we had already decided some months before that we would stay and fight, using the time to block & fill house gutters, top up a wheelie bin, bath, buckets, etc. Thea and I changed into more suitable clothing, ran out the hose, reviewed where the cars were parked, secured the house and tried to review all we should do. I held off from starting the water pump at the dam, as we had limited fuel (enough for about 7 hours). I have never been caught in a bushfire before, but I have seen the aftermath of several, so I kept reviewing what we were doing. It was extremely hot and we did not notice the cold front at all. Then we heard it, roaring like a jet airplane off in the distance but the sound was more continuous and the sky went red to the South. I could not tell how far off it was, as it was hidden behind the hill at the back of the house.
I thought it would be quite some time before we would see it, when suddenly there was naked flames on the hill above us, to the South. Quickly we sprung into action. I raced to the dam (about 150 meters away), started the water pump (it still fired up first try!!) and raced back to the house. Through the crashing and raging, the fire had sprung out over the top of the hill from the rear paddock and was half way towards the house. I began by wetting everything- the trees (they could drip to the ground), the house (3 sides), the paddock and Thea (??). The fire was creeping downhill towards us, being downhill, it had slowed. However, much more critical was the fire approaching us sideways from across the hills to the South-East, driven quickly by a strong southerly. Two fronts!! We were still watering everything, the walls, verandah, lawns and most importantly the trees and shrubs on the outer embankment. I had the hose and Thea was disbursing buckets of water filled from the large wheely bin.
The heat was intense but managable. The shed 100 metres away was no longer visible through the smoke.
The house came under ember attack as the fire raged up the eastern embankment. At one stage, we thought we had lost control, as several trees took alight. Many embers landed on the walls but I couldn't get close, due to the sheer heat. Then, there was a moment when the fire calmed briefly and we hit it hard with water. It was this moment that gave us a window of opportunity else we most likely would have lost the house. I had already given up on the shed and assumed it was a lost cause. The fire coming down the hill was burning much slower and so we kept an eye on it but maintained our focus on the eastern end. The fire quickly moved across the embankment. I followed it with the hose but ironically, when I looked back, the area I had just put out was burning fiercely again. I had to do this quite a few times before I had control. It was an insidious thing as it seemed to seek out and find any/all flammable vegetation. Thea was quickly on the move putting out spot fires around the house. Her buckets of water were more effective on the more solid materials (such as shrub stumps, tree trunks, logs, etc.) than my hose which seemed to blow the red coals off and spread the fire. My hose was much more effective on the lighter materials (grass, ground covers, tree leaves, shrubs, etc), covered a much larger area and was more continuous. Between the two of us, we got control of it around the house and the embankment, but we had no influence on it in the open paddocks, where we could only watch it burn. After feeling the immediate threat was gone at around 11pm, we could stand back and watch the fire march aggressively through the forest opposite the house. It was a surreal sight to see.
The house came under ember attack as the fire raged up the eastern embankment. At one stage, we thought we had lost control, as several trees took alight. Many embers landed on the walls but I couldn't get close, due to the sheer heat. Then, there was a moment when the fire calmed briefly and we hit it hard with water. It was this moment that gave us a window of opportunity else we most likely would have lost the house. I had already given up on the shed and assumed it was a lost cause. The fire coming down the hill was burning much slower and so we kept an eye on it but maintained our focus on the eastern end. The fire quickly moved across the embankment. I followed it with the hose but ironically, when I looked back, the area I had just put out was burning fiercely again. I had to do this quite a few times before I had control. It was an insidious thing as it seemed to seek out and find any/all flammable vegetation. Thea was quickly on the move putting out spot fires around the house. Her buckets of water were more effective on the more solid materials (such as shrub stumps, tree trunks, logs, etc.) than my hose which seemed to blow the red coals off and spread the fire. My hose was much more effective on the lighter materials (grass, ground covers, tree leaves, shrubs, etc), covered a much larger area and was more continuous. Between the two of us, we got control of it around the house and the embankment, but we had no influence on it in the open paddocks, where we could only watch it burn. After feeling the immediate threat was gone at around 11pm, we could stand back and watch the fire march aggressively through the forest opposite the house. It was a surreal sight to see.
We had 1 hour of sleep Saturday and not much on Sunday. We counted over 400 spot fires on the Sunday night in the forest surrounding the farm (3 sides - N, W & S). We are still on alert in case the winds flared up from a different direction and we come under ember attack.
We were very lucky that we were prepared, that our water pump didn't fail and we had replaced the hose fittings just in time. Driving around today, 4 out every 5 houses appear to have been burnt to the ground in the Flowerdale valley and the situation is much worse for those living down on Long Gully Road where they are finding people dead."
We were very lucky that we were prepared, that our water pump didn't fail and we had replaced the hose fittings just in time. Driving around today, 4 out every 5 houses appear to have been burnt to the ground in the Flowerdale valley and the situation is much worse for those living down on Long Gully Road where they are finding people dead."
We were without phones (both landline and mobiles) for 6 days, no power for 13 days, no road access for 6 days (trees across roads), etc. So it was the following Monday before we could get brief messages out to family & friends, saying we were OK. Since the mobile towers on the higher hills had been disabled, it was an accident that my SMS messages only went out when Thea drove to Strath Creek for milk, that suddenly the phone picked up a signal at the Convention Centre, 20 minutes drive away. This road soon became popular with the locals until Telstra installed a temporary mobile tower in Flowerdale. Road access is still restricted to emergency services, locals and contractors only, after 17 days.
