BUSHFIRE - Grab the cat and dog and go......

[Lesley Dewar]

This is my tribute to the volunteer firefighters and State Emergency Service workers who stood alongside CALM and FESA during the Mundaring-Karragullen Fires.

It all seems a little unreal, now, but the bare walls of my bedroom attest the roller coaster ride of emotions two weeks ago.

On the Saturday, some idiot deliberately lights a fire in the forest near Karragullen. Over that weekend, up steep hillsides and impenetrable hidden gullies filled with thick vegetation, the fire rages out of control. The smoke billows above the horizon; clearly visible from home but it is many miles away. Monday, it is still not close to us.

Tuesday, as I am driving back to my office from Perth, I see a huge pillar of smoke and flames erupt in the hills. I call my Mum. The pine plantation near Mundaring is exploding in a fireball of intense heat. Tuesday night, about midnight, the smoke in my office ? 30 kms from the fire ? is so intense I leave with eyes streaming.

The radio is broadcasting fire alerts every twenty minutes and I drive to Sawyers Valley, absolutely bewildered. The further up the escarpment I go, the less smoke there is, until I cannot see or smell any sign of fire. Alex, the fire captain at Sawyers, shows me the map of the fire and the areas under such threat that residents are evacuating their homes. He assures me that it is not being alarmist to warn friends and to prepare for a possible evacuation.

I call some friends and then come home and spend a couple of hours packing the essentials ? photos, personal papers, small items of great sentimental value. I talk to my Dad. It is worrying but we are probably far enough away to be safe.

Wednesday morning, 7:00am ? a wildfire alert and we are right in the middle of the huge area under threat. From Sawyers to Chidlow; Mt Helena to Parkerville; Mahogany Creek to Darlington and Hovea. Both sides of the highway. I saw a wildfire run through John Forrest National Park a few years ago ? and I know what it can do.

With a 300m battleaxe driveway and no way to pump water if the power fails, we action the ?grab the cat and dog and go?? plan. Dad and I spent four hours wrapping, packing and moving items to Warren & Lisa?s shed. We take the jeep over there and bring back a cat cage for Tung. It is so surreal ? no smoke, no fire, nothing out of the ordinary ? yet, every twenty minutes a broadcast ?wildfire? alert.

Just after 1:00pm, I drive down the hill to my office. Smoke everywhere! The sun is glowing in a baneful fashion through the haze and its eerie light bounces off the windscreens of cars like a strange spotlight from hell. Streams of people leaving their offices and workshops and going up the hill to help guard their homes and fight the common enemy. Ash falling in the CBD.

All day Thursday and Friday, I work to finish and deliver my Upper Quartile research report and keep checking in with Dad, who spends the whole time wetting down around the two houses. Warren and Lisa text me from beach in East Africa after being on safari, unaware of all of this! The night view from the satellites shows the fire like a red-hot coal in the heart of the hills. Reminds me of Lord of the Rings. By Friday, the fire is contained and reasonably under control ? but with a perimeter of 150kms and 27,000 hectares burnt out and a Sunday forecast temperature of 40c, we are still gravely concerned.

Living like a bag lady with all my clothes in the back of my car. A barrage of feelings this week: worry, relief, disbelief, apprehension, concern for others, anger, gratitude, achievement and, finally, almost a slight feeling of foolishness, when the feared disaster does not occur. I recall the words of my friend, Ian. ??I know about fire. You have done all the right things. Grab the things that matter to you and go. Bugger the rest.?

There is nothing we can say that will truly express our thanks, admiration and gratitude to the hundreds of volunteers who work day and night alongside the regular fire brigade, for more than a week, fighting this huge bushfire. We can freely give them money, so that they spend less of their time fund raising for essential equipment and more time in training and doing controlled burns to lessen the risk of this happening again.

We can be less selfish and not have trees growing right up to our gutters and eaves, to lessen the chance they have to risk their lives to save our property. On this Sunday afternoon, as I unpack my car and think about bringing everything back from Warren & Lisa?s, it seems like a weird dream. It isn?t entirely over yet ? we are still on high alert because of the raging temperature.

But, with a fire plan clearly in mind and the decision made long before the event about what goes and what stays, my lovely husband?s efforts to teach me have borne calm and reasoned action ? not panic. I know Robbie would be proud of me.

For more of Lesley Dewar?s writings, visit her website at
http://lettersfromlesley.blogspot.com

For her business website, go to http://www.upperquartile.com.au