The 25th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday fires occurs on Saturday 16 February.
Fire Flyer is seeking your memories to mark the occasion.
- Where were you on the day?
- What role did you play?
- What is your most striking memory of 16 February 1983?
(Photo courtesy of the Department of Sustainability and Environment)
11 comments:
Never will we forget the loss of the brave Panton Hill and Narre Warren Volunteers who lost their lives after the notorious change came through Upper Beaconsfield.
My most enduring memory of Ash Wednesday is, as a young fresh-faced Brigade Officer on a Pumper Strike Team, driving past burning house after burning house until we finally found one where at least we could save the exposures (houses)either side. Nothing in my training had prepared me for that aspect of that night.
Steve
Cement Mixers..!!
As a 13 year old..hearing cement mixers travelling up and down the road to Warburton as improvised tankers. Seeing the glow from Cockatoo and Warburton fires, and the wind dropping ashes around the house and the swimming pool.
I wasn't a Brigade member or anything at that time but what I remember is firstly the dust storm that rolled in the week before, I worked behind the Law Courts and could not see the buildings. The second thing I remember is the heat on Ash Wednesday, it was so hot and strength sapping, not even the birds were flying, listening to the fires on the work radio. The smoke that shrouded the city. My husband and his SES Unit were called out just after the change.
Both my wife and I were in St John Ambulance at the time. She was on duty at Noojee and one of her memories was being told that if the fire topped the ridge, get yourself into the cellar of the hotel. Don't worry about anything or anybody else, just get down there.
Being a 14 year old, seeing the smoke on the way home from School and going to my first big fire, Wellington Road full of Fire Trucks, Ambo's and Police. The noise of the fire drowned out even the sirens. Once Dusk set in, seeing miles of flashing red and blues lights. Once home sat on the couch and left an imprint of myself in ash. Still get the chills when I see or read about Ash Wednesday, hope it never happens again.
I was only 9 years old but i remember looking out the window of my parents Endeavour Hills home and seeing the red glow comming from towards the Belgrave South Narre North area. it was like nothing I had ever seen before or since. I remember the reports on the radio of areas which were being evacuated, town after town. Later in evening my parents took my 1 year old brother and myself for a drive to see where the fire had been. we got as far as the Harkaway Rd and Boundary Rd before police turned us back. As a kid it always sticks in my mind seeing the defencless aninalst(cat/dogsfrom the cattery/kennel) in Narre North which obviously had been let out as a last ditch effort for their survival. Some of them had been killed as they ran out and onto the roads. As the night fell the eeiry orange glow got brighter and brighter and the smell of smoke stronger and stronger.
As a fourth lieutenant in the Narre Warren Nth fire brigade and 23 at the time. I started wrok at 6.00am so was able to leave early. on arriving home in Narre Nth my phone rang and it was the RO asking what I could see, my reaction was this is going to be big. Using the old FRS system i activated our brigade, that was the begining of a night mare. I had only been married 6 mths and the only way i new my husband was still around as we were on different trucks and shifts, was his change of clothes on the floor. For days I hadn't seen him, i heard him over the radio a couple of times and we net up at Akoonah Park in Berwick after the Premier had paid a visit but we couldn't talk. we had lost our friends in the Narre Warren truck and was too busy to deal with it then. It wasn't until the funerals that it finally hit home. one of them was going to be on our truck but as he had transferred to Narre I said that maybe he should go with them. what a mistake this is where that saying comes in "If only". typing this brings it all back as if it was yesterday. I will never forget.
I was recalled to Dandenong F.S. at 1600hrs on Ash Wednesday, my first role was to assist in the watchroom taking up to 30 to 40 calls a minute, Keysborough came up with thier tanker and had several responses with us through the night, I think we were all that was left at that stage, I was then put to taking names and addresses of people volunteering their services, I dont think they had any idea of what we were up against. I was sent out with a firie at about 2300hrs to pick up crews, the stories of these men was only matched by what I was seeing, we took one firie home to his motherin laws, the story of his own house lost and he and his crew fighting to save his neighbors home that had just caught alight.
Going out on Thursday 17th to Akoona Park, then on to the Dandenong Bedford 800 Gal. tanker and being out there for 18 hours, the fires were still going but not as bad as Ash Wednesday we still had to keep going, I returned to Dandenong early Friday morning and continued my normal shift. I got home Saturday morning and collapsed utterly exhausted, I some times feel I still haven't got over it !.
Our brigade was turned out early in the evening to Wright Forest between Cockatoo and Emerald and my husband was driving our tanker. They were working on the fire at the top of Wright Road with a few other tankers trying to contain the fire prior to the wind change hitting. When the change arrived, he described what he saw as the most beautiful thing but also the most terrifying thing - like a giant hand picking up the flames and hurling them down the hill into the township of Cockatoo. I took a relief crew into Cockatoo just after midnight, when we got to the fire station, the body bags were being unloaded. We all knew it was serious - this confirmed just how tragic things were. My Dad was Comms Officer at the time and heard the radio messages from the 2 tankers at Upper Beaconsfield. He'd been through WW2 and he said Ash Wednesday affected him nearly as much as the war. I knew my hubby was ok, he knew I was ok - we had heard each other on the radio, but it was a few days before we actually saw each other again.
A tribute to the 25th anniversary of Ash Wednesday. By Michael 'perky' Percec, 20, of Cockatoo.
The smell of smoke,
The crackle of Twigs,
The crunch of leaves,
The roar of a fire,
The memories come flooding back.
The wind,
The heat,
The flames,
You start to shake.
The destruction,
The devastation,
The death,
The sadness,
The heartbreak,
You start to cry.
For it was twenty five years ago,
That you remember,
That we remember,
The fire,
The firemen,
The families,
Who took it all,
Who lost it all,
And,
Who gave it their all
We remember.
Post a Comment