Updated
A decade ago Canberra was hit by one of Australia's worst ever natural disasters, a firestorm which claimed four lives and 500 homes. Many have rebuilt, but remain shocked at the lack of official warning they were given about the threat to Canberra's suburbs.
Lexi Metherell
Source: The World Today | Duration: 4min 49sec
Topics: bushfire, fires, canberra-2600, australia
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well, as Victoria faces a very tough day, in Canberra they are remembering their own black day a decade ago when four lives were lost and 500 homes destroyed in a massive firestorm.
Remembrance ceremonies are being held in the capital, where today's hot and dry conditions are reminiscent of those on that Saturday in 2003.
A coronial inquiry was scathing of the authorities' management of the bushfire.
But while the scars remain most people have moved on and rebuilt their lives, as Lexi Metherell reports.
LEXI METHERELL: John Flannery sifts through some charred relics of life before the Canberra firestorm.
JOHN FLANNERY: Even the Lord Jesus did not survive (laughs). That was a statue of Jesus Christ which is blackened and he's still there though.
LEXI METHERELL: Saturday the 18th of January started out like any other at the Flannery's place on Warragamba Avenue on Canberra's western fringe.
JOHN FLANNERY: I'd actually been to a garage sale halfway down the street and I'd bought a dog kennel and a few other things and had them out the back. It all started to change as the day progressed because it was getting darker in the sky and we hadn't heard any warnings about anything happening.
LEXI METHERELL: Because none had been issued?
JOHN FLANNERY: None had been issued and there were no fire engines running around, no emergency vehicles, no police, no nothing so we thought well if there was a danger they'd tell us.
LEXI METHERELL: An eerie feeling descended over the street. The Flannerys sent their children elsewhere and began trying to protect their house - hosing down the roof and clearing the gutters.
JOHN FLANNERY: And then I was cleaning up around the back after I'd been on the roof and I looked up the side of the house and over across the road there was pine forest and there was grass, longish grass in front of that and I was looking across and all of a sudden there was sort of circles of fire in the grass and I thought are they doing burn back there?
But what had happened then was this noise and all of a sudden our house is being hit by branches and bits of tree and smashing windows it was sort of like, you know, people throwing missiles at us and even though the flames were that far away it was in no time that this sort of windstorm fire, they call it a firestorm, it was a firestorm.
It went from flames at the top at the mountain and within minutes it engulfed our house, our neighbourhood and then began a few hours of mayhem and surreal activity.
LEXI METHERELL: Warragamba Avenue was one of the frontlines of the firestorm in which four people died and nearly 500 homes were lost. Residents were caught off-guard. Emergency warnings were issued as homes were already alight.
Reports on the radio reflected the chaos and confusion.
VOX POP 1: Flames are across the road, they're probably 20 metres away from these houses now.
VOX POP 2: As we were leaving our house the fire embers were in the front yard. We believe that several houses may have been lost in that street.
VOX POP 3: The air is just so thick with smoke and debris. It's just absolutely amazing.
LEXI METHERELL: The Flannerys stayed as long as they could to save their home but left when the roof caught fire.
JOHN FLANNERY: I'm still, um, not resentful but I'm gobsmacked I think that given the enormity of what hit this city, how and why did people not get the feeling that something serious was about to hit this town.
There is certainly greater awareness and I do know that around here and the other suburbs around Western Creek, there are sort of little community fire-fighting teams.
I still think there would be a sense of it just can't happen again. It happened in 2003. You know, we're a city for goodness sake. Fires don't, bushfires don't go through urban areas and do what they're doing in country New South Wales at the moment.
Uh, well they do. There's the message. We never thought it would happen. We lived through it and it can happen again.
LEXI METHERELL: The pine forest across the road is now gone and the neighbourhood transformed.
Unlike many others nearby, the Flannerys stayed.
From the wreckage of their home they salvaged a doorknocker, a family heirloom. It now has pride of place at their new home.
JOHN FLANNERY: It's a Reims gargoyle from France. It does have a very sinister look about it (laughs) but that was on our old front door. It's now on our new front door.
LEXI METHERELL: Well, it's in pretty good nick.
JOHN FLANNERY: Oh yeah well, it took a bit of scrubbing to get back. As I say it used to be a bit more shiny in its demeanour but now it's sort of got a solemn burnt look about it which is quite appropriate.
LEXI METHERELL: To ward off any more catastrophes?
JOHN FLANNERY: Yes, a good luck charm.
SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Canberra resident John Flannery ending Lexi Metherell's report. And a longer version of that interview will be posted on our website later today - just go to abc.net.au/world today.
No comments:
Post a Comment