‘Everything’s gone’: Kangaroo Island farmer Danielle Short shot harrowing video of her home burning in bushfire
Incredible video taken by a Kangaroo Island mother shows her house going up in flames during the horrific January bushfires.
Bushfire Support
Don't miss out on the headlines from Bushfire Support. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- One family, four houses lost
- Shane Leahy lost his home but continued to fight fires
- Full extent of damage seen from space
“The house is on fire. Oh my God. Everything’s gone.”
With these simple words, Danielle Short describes the video footage she is capturing after returning from fighting fires to check on her family home near Gosse, in Kangaroo Island’s northwest.
Danielle and her husband Sam had been working up to 22 hours a day on their farm firefighting unit, battling the blaze which had started on December 20 in Flinders Chase National Park.
When the weather turned nasty again on January 3, they had made the decision to protect their flock of 8000 sheep and hope their home would survive. It did not.
“We were in the paddock and watching the front roll over, trying to keep the sheep on the burnt ground,” Danielle said.
“It was like a thunderstorm. Like thunder rolling. And so much dust. You couldn’t see the bullbar in front of you. It was just black, like day turned to night. And then all we could see when the start of front came through was just the glow.
“You’d try and face the ute back towards the wind because we were just rocking flat out. The winds had gusts of up to 130km/h.
“Later, we managed to sneak down the road and go and see if anything survived and yeah, I got video footage the house still just ablaze ... alight. It was just gone.”
Trees were still falling around them as they watched, so they quickly retreated and returned the next morning to survey the damage.
The home they had been raising their children Jackson, 12, and Lochlan, 10, was gutted. Christmas presents opened just days earlier were among the items lost.
“That was pretty devastating,” Danielle said. “There was nothing really left, just the iron roof, gun safes, a few gas bottles and that was it. We did manage to save the kids’ motorbikes, because the rainwater tanks let go and went underneath the car shed. They (the kids) were very happy when they saw them.”
The Shorts will stay at Sam’s parents home in Western River while they rebuild and, despite losing their home, consider themselves one of the lucky ones.
“We’re pretty lucky we’ve got someone to fall back on and have a good place to stay,” Danielle said.
“The kids are over it though. They just want to open their Christmas presents and want to ride motorbikes. We’re just like: ‘Sorry, guys. we’ve just got to get through this ugly patch first’.”
