Australian Bushfires - My Wildfire in 1981
As an Australian I was affected deeply by the horrific Victorian fires which killed more than 180 lives on Saturday 7th of February 2009 and destroyed over 1000 homes.
My partner Lisa was so concerned for me as I told her of stories of Wildfires I had fought many years ago in my youth.
No one can understand how powerful a widlfire is unless you have witnessed one yourself.
Back in the 80’s, I worked for the Australian National Railways and part of our job was to put out summer track fires started by passing freight trains. When a train uses it’s brakes, it will spew out sparks. In most cases these sparks land on bare ground and do not pose a risk. However, sometimes these spark will fly out from the trains brake pads and light small fires along the tracks.
Most of the track fires were very small. But as a track maintenance crew, we were called out and usually put out the fires with a couple of hours. These fires were at anytime day or night. The only bonus to us, was that we were paid for a minimum of 4 hours, whether we were out there for an hour or 10 hours.
I worked between Hallet in South Australias mid north and Peterborough.
In the summer of 1981 we were called out to fight a fire 5 kilometres east of Peterborough. The day was extremely hot and our crew had spent most of the day under a colvert. It was a bad day for fires and we had hoped that this day would be clear of fires and track buckles.
Around 3pm our Track boss had rang us on the railway phone line and told us of a small track fire near Peterbrough and that he wanted us to get the truck and fire tank and pumps and go have a look. I remember we were all pissed off because we had just completed a very hot day (46c on track) and all we wanted to do was go home and have a cold beer.
At the time I was a truck driver/fettler so my job was to get the truck and water tanks. We were on the road to Peterbrough by 3.15pm and arrived at the fire by 3.45pm.
The small track fire had grown from a small blaze on Railway property to a large grass fire on the property of farmer Giles. I remember seeing him trying his best to keep the fire from going through another fence.
My Ganger (foreman) told four of our crew to grab the fire hoses and get in the back of the truck. He then told me to drive the truck along the upwind side of the fire so that the flames wouldn’t burn back on us.
The heat was unreal and the roar of the flames was deafening. I had fought many small fires in my young life, but this one was the “Bigun”.
It was a very hot day, gusting winds and we had very limited water. The only water we had was what ever was in our water tank. I would gues around 2000 litres and we had 4 fire hoses feeding from it.
I suppose within 30 minutes the fire had got away from us and we needed help and a message was passed onto the Country Fire Service and we had to hold on till they arrived.
I remember seeing farmer Giles trying to cut some fences to let his stock out and the fire was within metres of him. I yelled out, or maybe my Ganger yelled out for everyone to get off the truck. I drove like the devil towards farmer Giles. My intent was to shield him from the flames. If I could put the truck between him and the fire, maybe he could cut the fence?
That was the plan, but in the end the fire was way too hot for me to get the truck between him and the fire, so I kept blowing the truck horn to try and get him out of the way, so that I could use the truck to bring the fence down.
I can still see him, trying to cut the fence. Putting himself in front of the fire, desperately trying to save his livelyhood and the lives of many hundreds of sheep and kangaroos.
Farmer Giles did get out of the way and I did drive through his fence and the stock did get out. But we were running very low in water, so out came the fire bags. These are heavy heshion bags we use to stamp out the small flames on the wings of a fire. We were not going to put this fire out, but we needed to stop it getting any wider.
The Country Fire Service people came out with their trucks and within an hour had the fire under control.
We continued putting out spotfires for about 2 hours, until the CFS told us that the fire was out.
Because this fire started on Railway land we were not allowed to leave the fire until the fire was totlaly out. It was still very windy and hot and the Ganger was concerned the fire may start again, so we stayed until nightfall, when the conditions cooled off and the wind stopped.
I arrived home around 11pm and the first thing my wife told me was I stank of grass smoke. She was trying to be funny, trying to console me. She also noticed that all the hair on my right side of my head was singed and the skin on my right arm was surface burnt. To be honest I hadn’t noticed. But i certainly did after she mentioned it. But we lived 250 kilometres from Adelaide and at least 40 kilometres from the nearest Dr, so I just had to put up with it.
It wasn’t until the next day in the work shed that I realised how dangerous the fire had been. All down the righthand side of the truck the red paint had been burnt. It wasn’t burnt off, it was discoloured. Sort of a mustard colour.
My Ganger, Mike told me I had to go get something done for my burnt arm. So I did!
My fire wasn’t anything like the one in Victoria and no one died in my fire except for a couple of field mice. But I can truly understand how the fire fighters feel while trying to save life a property. You do things that are super human. And they do it for free. True heros.
