How Bonville’s RFS firefighters survived deadly Nana Glen blaze
The fire was so loud, ferocious and close, the firefighters couldn’t hear the horn of their truck. If it wasn’t for RFS training, things would have been much worse, says the chief of Bonville’s crew.
NSW
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THEY couldn’t see or breathe, the fire was so furious it melted their truck and the water from their hoses evaporated before it hit the flames, but firefighters from Bonville on the NSW mid-north coast refused to be beaten.
Four firefighters, Luke Peadon, 17, his dad Rod Peadon, 51, Jake Hanson, 26, and captain Craig Melrose, 64, endured hellish conditions at Nana Glen on Tuesday afternoon where they dug in to save Coffs Harbour.
If the fire jumped Orara Way between the tiny towns of Glenreagh and Nana Glen, there would have been nothing stopping it racing through 25km of thick bush to Coffs Harbour.
The Bonville crew were braced on a narrow dirt road on top of a steep slope in the path of the Liberation Trail fire at about 5pm, when sudden, swirling wind gusts scuppered their plans.
None of the men can recollect the timeline, other than to say seconds felt like minutes before a ring of fire formed three metres from their truck.
“Unfortunately the wind changed directions twice and then it picked up in ferocity and came straight towards us,” Mr Melrose said. “We had fire across the road, fire behind us and in front of us, basically fire all around.”
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The smoke was so thick firefighter Rod Peadon couldn’t see his son, Luke, standing right beside him. Luke took the day off school and earlier that morning Rod cancelled a flight to Amsterdam were he was due to present a research paper about clinical medicine.
“There were times when I couldn’t physically open my eyes because of the smoke,” Luke Peadon said. “I couldn’t see Dad at one point when he was about 30 centimetres away, it was that thick.
“Sometimes I couldn’t breathe, twice I had to get into the truck just to breathe in the airconditioning.”
When the crew decided to retreat, Rod Peadon had to adjust the nozzle on his hose to create a vertical halo of water to fight his way through the smoke.
Driving out of Ellems Quarry Rd, where the home of a local resident, Warren Smith, was destroyed that day, Mr Melrose repeatedly lost sight of the relatively straight road.
Radiant heat from fire on both sides of the road penetrated the truck’s insulated doors and the crew discussed whether to draw kevlar curtains over the passenger windows and deploy sprinklers to stop the wheels catching alight.
The four men battled through without deploying emergency measures to pop out at Orara Way, where they pulled up 50m down the road and were ordered to douse spotfires that had jumped the man-made line of defence.
As soon as they got out of the truck, parked six metres from the roadside trees, spotfires sprang up under the truck and under their feet.
The heat was so intense, Mr Melrose jumped in the truck to beep the horn three times, warning his crew to evacuate. But the fire was roaring so loudly, no one could hear the horn.
Mr Melrose was trapped in the driver’s seat; the intensity of the heat was melting the side mirror.
“We pulled up clear of the fire and started hitting spot fires with hoses,” Mr Melrose said. “The wind got behind the fire and it was so strong it pushed the fire right up to the truck and very, very quickly we were in a bad situation.
“The fire was so loud, ferocious and close that the fellas didn’t hear the horn.
“By this stage, I couldn’t get out to find my crew because if I opened the door I would have been singed.”
Instead, Mr Melrose bunny-hopped the truck forward, which tugged the hoses and let his crew know they needed to get out.
With that, the men clambered back aboard, speeding towards Nana Glen with the hoses dragging along the road like cans at the back of a car carrying newlyweds.
For all the drama and danger, the men are confident their training saved their lives and are back fighting fires currently out of control along the mid-north coast.
Luke Peadon returned to Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour the next day and Jake Hanson was back in his plumbing job.
Rod Peadon, whose other son Bailey, 19, is also fighting fires, said he was proud of how Luke handled himself.
“You couldn’t be a parent and not have an element of concern for your son’s wellbeing in moments like that,” Rod Peadon said. “Absolutely I am proud of him.”
Mr Melrose couldn’t collect his wife from day surgery on Tuesday but he collected her early on Wednesday and is today fighting more fires, despite being self-employed and losing earnings.
He hasn’t been able to sleep well since Tuesday, tossing and turning wondering if he could have done anything differently.
“We know the training worked, but as soon as ScoMo (PM Scott Morrison) gives us new funding, we need horns facing behind the truck,” he said.
The Bonville crew saved every house they were tasked to protect on Tuesday.
Originally published as How Bonville’s RFS firefighters survived deadly Nana Glen blaze