THE KINGLAKE RESCUE
On the 7/02/2009 at around 5pm I was part of a five man crew from the Wonga Park Fire Brigade that responded in Wonga Park Pumper-Tanker to a grass and scrub fire at Marshalls Rd St Andrews. This is my storey about the events that unfolded throughout the afternoon of Black Saturday and into the early hours the next morning.
The crew consisted of:
1st Lt Andrew Wright (Crew Leader)
FF Luke Thomas (Driver)
FF Ryse Doughty- Colwell
FF Tim Cochrane
The Pumper-Tanker is a single cab truck in-which the crew leader and driver ride in the front and three firefighters are in the open back section of the truck
We drove quickly traveling through Warrandyte/ Kangaroo Ground and found ourselves on a dirt road (Buttermans Track) finally arriving at Marshalls Rd were the fire front was raging out of control; I noted that the flames were twice the size of a house it was impacting on, judging on the fire behavior our crew leader and driver elected to leave ASAP the fire was burning directly towards us, It was too dangerous to be anywhere near that area.
My Crew leader decided to head to the closest fire station, that being Panton Hill, whilst on route to Panton Hill FS we responded to a car fire on the Kangaroo Ground St-Andrews Rd and promptly extinguished it, we then proceeded to Panton Hill CFA station.
At arrival at the Panton Hill fire station we refilled the truck with water and spoke to a member who told us to proceed to Hildebrand Rd via St Andrews to assemble with other tankers.
At approximately 6.15pm we arrived at St Andrews Fire Station where Kinglake’s CFA tanker was parked changing a tire. Just as we started speaking to the members there we heard North Warrandyte Tanker’s first PAN message on the radio(possible assistance needed) ,stating that they needed urgent assistance and that they were on the Kinglake Road halfway between St Andrews and Kinglake townships, we decided to proceed to their location as a back up appliance.
We proceeded towards Kinglake and stopped at a house, fully involved in fire, the crew all jumped off to investigate if there was any persons requiring assistance, we found nobody, visibility was very low and the smoke from the fire became unbearable, so we all jumped back on the truck and headed further up the Kinglake Rd.
From then on every house/ property we came across was on fire, a fellow crew member and I spotted a CFA Tanker, which we believed to have been Wattle Glen’s Tanker, they were parked beside a burning house that was razed to the ground, we wondered why they were not going to North Warrandyte’s aid with us. We continued onwards up the mountain. We paused frequently every 2-3 km’s to remove fallen trees in our way, at one stage our driver used the bulbar of the tanker to push them out of our path.
Further up the road we came across one of the only houses on the Kinglake road that wasn’t on fire. The PT pulled into Mullers Road towards the property’s driveway but the driveway was blocked by fallen burning trees. At this time my crew-leader was at the door of the truck yelling at us to grab the wire cutters and cut the fence to enter the property to try to save the house. Just as we started cutting the fence a MAYDAY message (urgent distress call) was issued by the North Warrandyte Tanker. At this point in time we did not know it, but we were the closest truck to their position being some 8km’s away. We made a decision to leave the house as it looked as though it had a chance of survival. We again took off up the road towards Kinglake to try to rescue North Warrandyte. The house we attempted to save burnt down along with all on its road.
As we headed further up towards Kinglake it was pitch black whilst raining embers, the effects of the smoke was indescribable. My eyes were stinging and I was struggling to keep them open, a splash of water restored my sight temporarily. At this point on the mountain our driver had 5 meters of visibility at best, using the white line on the road as his only guide. Anyone that has driven this road would know that even in good conditions it is dangerous, in these conditions it was a bit of freakish luck mixed with skilled driving that got as through.
As we got higher up the mountain we drove through a cutting, the smoke cleared allowing the crew a breath of much needed fresh air. We came across a motorbike in a ditch on the right side of the road, looking at the damage on the bike it was clear that there had been a crash, after a quick search of the area which revealed nothing we noted the bike’s registration and promptly proceed further up the Kinglake Rd.
There was no turning back now as the fire had cut us off from behind.
Approximately 200 meters up the road the truck suddenly came to a jolted stop, the crew automatically prepared to remove another tree from our path but this was no tree; as I went to exit the truck I almost jumped onto a body, it was the motorbike rider deceased in the middle of the road. The crew ran towards the man to confirm he was deceased but just looking at him it was very clear he was gone.
We again proceeded further up the almost never ending Kinglake Rd searching desperately for North Warrandyte. At this point in time I believe it would have been about 6:30pm. We came to an area of the road where the fire front had already passed through and the fire activity was low but that didn’t last long, further up the road burnt out trees changed to burning paddocks and winding roads became strait and smooth. The most noticeable degree of change was that burning homes started to appear everywhere again.
Looking through the smoke I saw a half burnt sign which read ‘WELC…….GLAKE’ It wasn’t until I saw that sign that reality sunk in. We drove no more than 500 meters past the sign, passing a group of crashed burning cars when we came to a roundabout (the intersection of Healesville Rd, Heidelberg-Kinglake Rd and the Whittlesea-Kinglake Rd).
At the precise moment we entered the roundabout a momentous explosion ripped out of a burning building on the left of our truck. We later found out that the exploding building was the Kinglake petrol station.
At this time we still had not sighted the North Warrandyte Tanker, the information that North were relaying to us by radio claimed that they had crashed into another vehicle and were trapped in a ditch surrounded by fire somewhere on the Heidelberg-Kinglake Rd, meaning we had either passed them or that they were trapped in a completely different location, which they were.
Our truck was stationary in the roundabout momentarily, a few people and numerous vehicles were gathered in this area. The crew was shouting toward the people asking: “have you seen another fire truck?” A man pointed vaguely towards a street which branched of the roundabout on the south eastern side of the Kinglake town. It was our best bet. So we took it.
Just before the start of this road (Victoria Rd Kinglake) a car was parked awkwardly, half blocking the entrance. A crew-member got off the truck and rushed towards the car which contained an elderly lady slumped at the wheel barely conscious in the thick smoke, their was no time, we had to leave her as our priority was the rescue of North Warrandyte, I threw a water bottle to the crew member to give to the lady.
We really were just not in any position to render any assistance to these people at that moment.
As we drove further away from the roundabout the crew tossed 3-4 bottles of water out of our truck towards people. It was all we could do for them.
We accelerated down a small residential road (Victoria Rd Kinglake) searching desperately for anything that resembled a fire truck. Homes on this street had been randomly taken by the fire, some burning, some untouched. We sped over speed humps (which became a crucial factor in the rescue) Our crew-leader had asked the North Warrandyte Tanker if they had driven over speed humps, North Warrandyte tanker confirmed that they had, we thought we must be on the right street as them, as there can’t be too many roads in Kinglake which have speed humps, we later found out that almost all the residential roads in Kinglake have speed humps.
Further down the road through the smoke we spotted a fire truck crashed in a ditch, with fire all around them.
We had finally found North Warrandyte.
The whole crew instantaneously jumped off our tanker and rushed to North's truck, one of my fellow crew members opened the back door of the truck in front of me. Inside, the crew looked barely alive sheltering desperately under the fire blankets. Adrenaline pumped we all assisted each man onto the back of our truck. One North Warrandyte member was physically lifted onto our tanker as he could not walk. With ten onboard a truck for five, we utilised every inch of space we had to shield from the immense radiant heat and embers, to allow for more room one Wonga Park member relocated to the cabin of the truck meaning there was now three in the front and seven on the back, it was an extremely wise move under the circumstances.
We abandoned the North Warrandyte tanker and took off back down Victoria Road which brought us back to the rounder-bout in Kinglake, we then proceeded onto the Healesville-Kinglake road in the direction towards Toolangi / Castella, our escape route.
Our Crew leader had requested an ambulance for some of the North Warrandyte crew, we were instructed to rendezvous with the nearest ambulance at Coldstream Fire Station, 30 Km’s down the Melba hwy.
The rescued North Warrandyte members were in a state of shock and panic, as many had just said their prayers; there was heated yelling and arguments on the back over the use of our truck’s emergency ‘crew protection’ water sprays.
At one moment a North Warrandyte member started to scream that he was on fire, large embers had found their way into the mans neck and lower back, at this stage the crew protection sprays were used momentarily to cool us down physically and mentally.
The fire behavior started to intensify yet again, embers belted down onto us, I can best describe this moment as ‘a hail storm of embers’.
I lay on top of a North Warrandyte member who did not have a fire jacket on, I tried my best to shield him from the embers that were raining onto us, during this time embers assaulted the mans beard and it ignited! I frantically poured Gatorade all over his face, extinguishing his singed beard.
At this stage it was quite a tense situation on the back regarding our trucks water sprays, my fellow Wonga Park crew member and I decided to turn off our pump because of the unnecessary use of our water sprays.
At this point, the fire behavior went from bad to worse, the fire was crowning over the road all around us. Unfortunately there were just too many people onboard the truck that we were unable to access the tubs with our fire blankets and our extra bottles of drinking water. We used our structure jackets and anything else we could find to shield us from the radiant heat.
With the amount of people on the back of our tanker we could not close the rear right side door of the truck; the North Warrandyte member that I lay on top off had one of his feet stuck outside of the door. A fellow crew member and I tried desperately to pull his foot inside as his pants began to smolder, we managed to pull his foot inside and promptly doused it with Gatorade and water.
I remember seeing headlights behind us, cars trying to follow us out of Kinglake. Slowly the headlights faded into the distance and I realised they would not have been capable of driving over the fallen trees.
We sped through the fire front down Mt Slide towards Dixons Creek. There was no way in hell we would stop or we were dead, we crashed through fallen trees in our path, one falling really close behind us.
North Warrandyte’s Crew leader was badly injured, when he removed his helmet blood ran down his face from a head injury he had received in their trucks crash, at one stage he slipped in and out of consciousness a couple times, we did not know it at the time but he had broken two vertebrae in his lower back.
We broke through the Ten kilometer wide fire front into Dixons Creek, with out warning our truck screeched to a halt, the crew on the back of which many were now standing were thrown forward as the tanker slowed. A partially burnt horse had ran onto the road in front us, a quick burst of the sirens and our path was cleared.
One of our crew is turning twenty the next day, we all sang a groggy ‘happy birthday’ to him witch contained about 100 coughs. It lightened the mood somewhat.
As we drove into the outskirts of Yarra Glen there were burning spot fires everywhere surrounding the township, we sped through the Yarra Glen town passing a CFA Pumper trying desperately to save the Yarra Glen train station.
As we came into Coldstream we passed through a police roadblock at the corner of Melba Hwy and Macintyre Lane, I will never forget the look on the peoples faces wondering if they have a family, friends or a home to go back to.
At around 7.30pm we arrived safe at Coldstream Fire Station, North Warrandyte’s Crew leader was immediately taken to hospital.
An ambulance officer promptly cleaned my eyes out for me, it was great to be able to see clearly again. Our crew was given some food, drinks and a chance to talk about what the hell had just happened.
The remaining members from North Warrandyte stayed at Coldstream Fire Station, our crew took off towards Healesville to assist in the firefight, we found ourselves in Tarrawarra Road, just north East of Coldstream.
Just as we were about to enter a property we were instructed to return to Coldstream fire station ASAP for and important debrief with some senior CFA officers and peer support members about Kinglake and the rescue.
After a quick debrief, our crew (Wonga Park) returned home at last, as did North Warrandyte’s crew. Wonga Park’s same crew ended up responding to a further two or three more emergency fire calls in the Christmas Hills area that night, we finally got back home at around 2:00am, slept for 4 hours and were back out again at 6:30am at Steels creek/Yarra Glen the next morning.
The End.
Andrew Oxley
Volunteer Firefighter,
Wonga Park Fire Brigade (CFA).