The Fire - From Rick

She took another long drink from the tall glass of ice water.

“What really gets me is my naïveté”, she said. “I had 50 metres of cleared land on all sides of my house and it wasn’t nearly enough. Maybe 100 would have saved my, but I’m not sure.”

“The fire ranger came around a few hours before and warned me that the fire was getting closer and that I should consider getting out. We discussed the Victorian fires but both thought that I’d likely be ok to stay with my house and keep it wet. But we didn’t count on the winds.”

“My home was near the top of the valley and I could smell the smoke all day. Early in the afternoon the wind started to pick up and I should have trusted my instincts and just left. But I didn’t”

“About an hour later I could hear this roar, a lot like the Bondi Beach surf during a big winter storm. It was the fire, maybe about half a kilometer down the slope. And the force of the wind increased again. There were huge clumps of ash landing on my roof and yard and I was having trouble putting them out before another bunch would land. I still could have left but didn’t.”

“The roar increased dramatically and then I started hearing these explosions, sort of a combination of branches snapping and fireworks bursting. And the clumps of ash started to be branches now, some of them as thick as my arm. How could they fly through the air like that?”

“The smoke was beginning to get to me, stinging my eyes and searing my throat. Everything from my house down to the edge of the gum trees was a yellow-brown and swirling in the wind like small whirlwinds. Suddenly this huge branch flew over my head as if launched from some rocket nearby and smashed through my living room window. At the same moment, the gums at the edge of the bush burst into flame looking like some special effects from a war movie. Once years ago when I was a little girl our school class took a day tour to Newcastle and visited a steel mill. I remember feeling the heat from the blast furnace and thought then my skin would peel off. Well this time it started to do that. The heat was so intense my hair began to smoke and little blisters began to raise on my arms.”

“I was terrified but had the presence of mind left to run and jump into my swimming pool. I spent the next 2 hours at least under water, coming up only for a second or two at a time to take a breath. I thought each breath would be my last, the air was so hot. Explosions deafened me, likely my propane tank and the petrol tank in my car going up.”

“And then it became calm – well calm compared to the inferno. I climbed out of my pool and hadn’t enough energy left to cry. My house was still burning, although not a wall was standing anymore. I had nothing except the soaking wet clothes on my back.”

“I just started walking up the road. It was like walking through a land that had just been hydrogen bombed. There was nothing. There was no one else on the road and I walked and walked until I was out of the fire zone. And here was your house.”

“Thank you. I know what a war refugee feels like now.”