The Fire

On 6 May 2005, I and my family lost our home to a house fire that has left us shocked, dazed and... homeless.

On the fateful Friday night the whole family (including the cat and dog) had joined our neighbours, Mark Stevenson and Julie Taylor for an evening of companionship, pizza and a movie.

At 9:50 pm, we were disturbed by another neighbour banging on our host's door, crying out that the neighbours house was on fire! It was our house!

I ran to our home to see if I could do anything, but the fire had already burned right through our roof, sending flames leaping into the night sky. It was obvious that the house was well and truly alight.

I rattled the dining room doors, to see if I could enter the house to rescue the childrens' pet ratties and some "important" papers I had left on the dining room table. Meryl was yelling at me not to go in, but I was doggedly determined to do something so I ignored her. Luckily for me, the doors were securely locked. I say luckily, because later I realised that the toxic smoke fumes could easily have incapacitated me before I could escape with my life and that the ratties were probably already dead from smoke fumes. I tried to use a garden hose, but the damned thing blew off as I tried to use it.

I eventually managed to find my briefcase and mobile telephone. In the melted remnants of the briefcase I found my newly awarded testamur for a Diploma in Project Management from the University of New England, just completed in April. It is “just a piece of paper”, but it represents a lot of hard work and a sackful of knowledge.

After this attempt I ran around to the laundry door, which was unsecured. I opened the door, but was taken aback by the strength of the wind that audibly howled into the house. It was only then that I realised that this fire was well beyond anything that I could do to affect its outcome. I did not enter, but quietly closed the door and waited for professional help.

All this while the fire brigade units were finding their way to our house. It is a battle-axe block, located some 90m from the roadside, so it can be a little hard to find. The first brigade unit arrived only 10 mins after they were called, but of course the fire had been burning for around 10-15 mins before they were called. (Note for self: Hire a back-to-base monitored burglar/fire alarm service).

They only took 15 mins to get the fire under control, but the damage had been done. The roof totally gone and the entire house and contents heat, smoke and water damaged.

I don’t think I have ever experienced such a feeling of total and utter helplessness as I watched the firemen smash in the door and the windows to pour streams of water on the blaze. All I could do was advise the firemen of where they could locate the electricity fuses and gas main.

I retreated back to our neighbours house and comforted Cassandra (11) and Rebecca (9) while Julie went to fetch our eldest daughter, Elizabeth (13) from her regular Friday night Youth Group meeting at St Stephen’s Anglican Church.

By 11pm, the fire brigades were rolling up their hoses and had set up a stand-by crew to monitor the fire’s progress all night. We had been interviewed by the community police and visited by the District Fire Chief who gave the girls very special teddy bears, dressed in Firemen's outfits.

The dog and cat had disappeared from the scene and we worried for their safety. We knew that the fish must have died along with the ratties, so we were very surprised when a 210cm fireman came from our house carrying a cracked, sooty aquarium with a couple of agitated goldfish swimming in it. These were placed in Mark and Julie's fish pond to recover.

Our other neighbours, the Crawfords, were away on a holiday in Europe so their daughter Jane offered us the use of their house for a few nights until we could organise more permanent accommodation. Gratefully we accepted, and spent a fitful night sleeping in a strange house, with the sound of busy a busy fire crew hosing off spot fires an infrequent counterpoint to an otherwise ordinary night. Judging from the number of early morning visitors we got the next day, I suspect that we were not the only ones to lose sleep that night.

The next day began our 10 day odyssey to getting some control, stability and normality back into our lives.

The pictures tell the tale better then I.

More later.

Michael (Cyclodelic)