KINGLAKE FIRE SURVIVOR’S TESTIMONY
25-Mar-2009
HOW WE SURVIVED THE KINGLAKE BUSHFIRES 07/02/2009
OUR TESTIMONY
Anthony & Jennifer Redman
Saturday the 7th of February 2009 has come to be known as “Black Saturday” in Australia. Ash Wednesday was Written into Australian history but this was a far worse event, with over 200 deaths and the loss of 2000 + homes just in one area of Victoria – our area. It all happened so suddenly and so quickly. The bush fire behaved as no other had ever done and travelled faster than a bushfire is ever supposed to do.
This is our story of how we survived the worst bushfires in the world, resulting in our little country town being put on the world map. We Victorians had endured amazing heat over days and days it seemed. Saturday 7th was shaping up to be a deadly day with the temperature showing on our car temperature gauge (verified by others in our area) as being 50 degrees C at 3pm in nearby St. Andrews. The winds were gathering with velocity and outside it was like stepping right into a fan forced oven on high. Our beautiful garden and plants were just crisping up before our eyes.
I went to work at 4.30pm at the local restaurant (that not much later burned to the ground). Soon reports that there were bushfires on two sides of Kinglake were circulating, each about 40 minutes drive away. Indeed, not too much later, fire surrounded Kinglake on three sides. No-one was extremely concerned yet, as fire was expected on such a day of severe weather. The CFA (Country Fire Authority) would cope.
However, very soon after that, the power went out, and several people came running into the restaurant telling of their houses burning down. Smoke was filling the air and an exodus of people in cars was beginning to happen down a road to Yarra Glen that they couldn’t get through on, as it turned out. Yet no-one had any news of what was exactly happening.
Everyone soon left the restaurant and an air of panic had begun to pervade the township as did the smoke, as well as confusion about what was really happening. The police had a road block at the nearest road to the restaurant that led to St. Andrews township, but even they didn’t know where the fire was. The Kinglake CFA trucks had been called out to the fires first reported in neighbouring areas, leaving two CFA women to ‘man’ our town’s CFA building.
Upon arriving home, I found my husband Tony and the neighbours trying to work out what to do – evacuate or stay and fight. There was still confusion as to what was happening and where the fires were exactly. Then we noticed that the paddock behind the house opposite was on fire. Our new generator was ready and we had the hose connected to the bore water pump. My husband told me to get clothes on that wouldn’t melt on my body should fire come near me. He had our little van turned around, running with the air-conditioning on, and the 2 dogs inside it, ready to go.
Then events changed for the worst so suddenly that it was ‘every man for himself’ in the township. We heard the most terrible roar mixed with the sounds of exploding houses and gas bottles. The sky turned blacker than night because the air was solid
with choking smoke and ash. We had made the decision to stay and fight to save our house that we had just re-roofed and put a new kitchen into. We had had an unction earlier in the day to put our most precious things by the front door, but had ignored it, as there couldn’t possibly be a fire in the Kinglake suburbs.
Armed with huge woollen blankets around us, tea towels over our faces and garden lights in our hands (so that we could locate each other in the yard as it was blacker than night), we began to hose off the house, each other and spot fires. We tripped over the heavy wet blankets, the hose and electrical lead, and things on the ground, as we couldn’t see anything. Still there was peace inside us both. The whole thing was quite bizarre.
The neighbours shed behind us, full of fuel, motor bikes and a car exploded, and his washing on the line was on fire. We heard more houses exploding around and about us, and the sky was raining fire. Burning embers flew at a ferocious velocity horizontally through the air and over our house roof into the front yard. It was still pitch black except for red from the fires. Then the neighbours house behind caught on fire, followed by the trees next to our house workshop which contained fuel for the mower, chainsaw and generator. I remember seeing the little agapanthus plants that I’d lovingly planted along the side of the driveway on fire like candles. The tall gum trees next to the workshop were on fire from bottom to top. The house across the road opposite us, had fire up to the back of it, and down our street both ways, was on fire.
It was then time to leave. My husband asked Father God to lead us out of this inferno safely and we had an unction to go down a road that went through the national park forest – a route one would normally not choose in a ferocious bushfire.
Through all this, we had a peace – that Peace that surpasses all understanding. There was no fear and we never had a thought that we would die. All was quite surreal as we set off in the two cars with the dogs, my handbag, our laptops, and only the clothes that we were wearing. Tony and I later estimated that there was only one or two minutes left that stood between our safe escape and death. We drove through the burning embers, exploding bits of falling tree branches, and pitch black choking smoke, dodging burning things on the road, until we came to Glenburn road, that led through the national park forest. Everything was still surreal but that Peace of God was there, stronger than what was happening around us.
Later on after the horrible event, we found out that if we had driven the usual way up to the township, we would almost certainly have died in the fire – as some people tragically did. We were led by the Peace of God inside to an escape route that was the only way out (we later found out). People standing on the side of the road leading down through the forest advised us not to go there; but the Peace of God led us on. (We don’t know what became of those people).
About half way down we stopped to consider whether to proceed or turn back as the sky was threateningly red, indicating that a fire storm was ‘just there’. Again the Peace of God led us on. We turned left at the end of the forest road onto a main road and went on to a town called Yea, which later became a refuge centre for so many escaping people. There were all sorts of people there, shell shocked to varying degrees, many having the look on their faces, with ember burnt eyes and bedraggled wet clothing that said, “my house is gone”. There were dogs, cats, horses, cars, trailers, police and fire engines everywhere. Smoke and falling ash filled the air, our lungs, the cars and pervaded our clothes – but it was not black any more. It was about 9.30pm. I felt like we had just had a taste of hell.
This was not the place we wanted to spend the night in, and having consulted with police, found that the road to Seymour was still open. The CFA advised us not to proceed but the Peace of God led us on again. Fire was about to close the road but we got through before we could be trapped for days on the Yea oval, like so many other people. At about 1am, having driven a in a huge sweep around the outer area of Melbourne, we arrived back in Melbourne at Tony’s parents house.
It wasn’t until a week later that we found out that Father God had led us out of the ‘holocaust’ (as many who had lived through it described it); on the forest road that was the ONLY way of escape. We later learned that every road that God had led us out on had closed after we had passed through, as fire engulfed each road. Fire came upon our little township of Kinglake from 3 sides, with such speed and ferocity that not even the CFA had time to send out a warning. In fact, only the two CFA women without a fire truck were there to defend the township, as our CFA had gone to help elsewhere. We were caught by surprise. Many ordinary folk became heroes that day. The fire went on to burn out other neighbouring townships, the township of Marysville being all but totally destroyed except for a handful of buildings – one in 5 people dying.
People had burned up in cars that had crashed in the pitch dark and were engulfed in the bushfire. People died in houses, having no warning. People died running, climbing fences, huddling on the ground. Men, women and children died that our community will miss terribly. Half the centre of the town burned down, those being there, watching. Our house burned down- there was only one house left standing in our street. Middle Kinglake Primary School burned down. The worst was not knowing for days who had lived and who had died. And there was the ecstatic relief, as days passed, when, one by one, we all found our living neighbours and friends. We, like everyone who had left the mountain, were unable to return for 4 days, as there were so much destruction and so many deaths. But Father God spared us the trauma of suffering that many people in our community, who saw unspeakable things that will take a long time to heal.
However, the Australian spirit of courage and victory has risen to do the hard things help, comfort, given in every way possible to those who have suffered so much. We are proud to be Australians. But GOD is in the midst, showing Himself strong and being there for whoever responds. There are so many stories of miraculous escapes and one cannot deny that God was there warning and helping people flee from the terror. We have seen His loving and giving character in so many people, being believers or not, as He made us all in His image.
As for us, the Redmans – God could have told us not to come and live in Kinglake – but He placed us here. He could have told us to save the house just as easily as He showed us to leave through the national park forest road – but our house burned down like so many thousands of other houses. However, we are in Kinglake, now on the world map, for just a time as this. We came out with virtually nothing, and others didn’t even have any identification on them, and yet others have lost family and friends. We have all lost something and suffered trauma – even those whose houses stand, some feeling guilty that their house survived.
Back on the mountain now in Kinglake, first in a caravan, and now in a bungalow (a better situation than many others are in) and provided by Father, we have met so many wonderful people, experienced both humility and the generosity of so many giving people, and being displaced like so many others whose houses burnt down . It will take 12 months or more to rebuild the township and much longer to rebuild people’s lives. I have been able to help in the relief centre; and at the Global Care tent we helped a lady put up an annex on a caravan on her burnt out block. We help our neighbour and he helps us. We help each other here.
Yesterday, we sat in someone’s shed with a small gathering of Christians from all over Australia and the world here to help, on camp chairs and esky’s, sharing Communion and being touched by The Holy Spirit. I was able to pray with the lady whose shed it was and it won’t be long before she accepts Jesus as her Lord and Saviour – she is searching for answers. There are so many doors of opportunity beginning to open. We have been loosed from so much ‘stuff’ and debt that bound up our lives, and are free for the first time to do what God wants us to do – could be scary to the soul but exciting in God’s scheme.
Our souls travail at times, and so many in our community are still in shock. Some will never return. The Coroner has just lifted an order over Kinglake to be released from lockdown from the rest of the world 5 and a half weeks on, as the event was so shocking here. It was like a MASH unit here for weeks, and one soldier who had seen service overseas said it was worse than a war zone. We are all still waiting for our rubble to be cleared away and it could take 6 months.
But soon most of us will be looking forward to rebuilding our lives and our houses. Thank God He is among us! Everything still smells of fire, but signs of life are appearing in fern fronds unwrapping, green grass sprouting and little leaves appearing on burnt gum tree trunks. The birds are back and there has been life-giving rain.
The story for the world is over but for us all in Kinglake and surrounds, it hasn’t yet begun. For the Redmans, God has shown us that we may have lost so much in the natural, but that if we lose our lives for Christ’s sake, we will gain EVERYTHING that is worth living for. “As for us and our household, we will serve the Lord.”
Jennifer Redman
Comment