Ash Wednesday’s raging infernos that tore across South Australia are still vivid in the memories of those who lived to tell the tale

Forty years ago, SA’s worst bushfires killed 28 people and destroyed homes, properties and livelihoods. Ash Wednesday remains vivid for survivors – see how their lives were impacted.

When Ron Rowe arrived back at his property in Adelaide Hills to find the worst bushfire in South Australia’s history had torn through his old German-style home, he put his head on the steering wheel and swore.

The raging infernos that claimed the lives of 28 people during Ash Wednesday had destroyed everything he and his wife Lynne had built in Paechtown.

One remarkable photo taken by an Advertiser photographer captured Mr Rowe’s devastation as he comforted his dog Pepper in front of what was left of their home.

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Ron Rowe with his distressed dog Pepper outside the blazing remains of his historic home at Paechtown on February 16, 1983.

Forty years on, the picture still hangs on the wall of their home and both Ron, 78, and Lynne, 77, consider themselves lucky.

Ron Rowe outside his former home in Paechtown, which he rebuilt after the fire. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“I look at it all the time and it’s a good memory for us because it reminds us of all the kindness we received during that period. Life goes on,” Mr Rowe said.

“It could have been worse for us, I think it was probably a blessing in disguise we weren’t home that day.”

Lynne said it was a turn of fate that led them to leave the property on February 16, 1983.

The pair had planned to stay home out of the 40C temperatures and gusty winds to watch a movie, but it all changed when she was called to fill a relief teaching shift.

“Ron decided that he didn’t want to stay in the house by himself, so he went down to UniSA at Underdale where he worked.”

“Pepper had to fend for himself that day, I think he must have sought refuge with the neighbours up the road and he just appeared out of nowhere when we got home.”

Paul Drogemuller still remembers the “hideous” heat from the flames lapping at his Paracombe home when the fire ripped through the picturesque landscape he’d called home at the time.

Paul was 24 at the time, but 40 years to the day later, his memories are still as vivid as ever.

“It was crazy,” he said recalling the mad dash he made to his home to help his mother fight the blaze.

Ash Wednesday, the day SA went up in flames

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After being turned around by police at a roadblock, he snuck past the checkpoint behind a concrete truck being used to carry water and drove through local orchards to make it home the back way.

He recalled the way the blaze relentlessly ripped through the landscape that day.

“You watched fire balls and a row of 50 or 100 pine trees explode,” he says. “It doesn’t seem to care who it gets and where.”

Paul’s family home and he and his wife Kathy’s first home were spared in the blaze but almost everything else perished.

“I don’t know that any animals survived the fire,” Paul said.

Kathy clearly remembers the uneasy feeling she had that morning all those years ago as the weather began to deteriorate.

“It just had an eerie feeling,” she said. “You just knew it was going to be a horrendous day.”

She also remembered just as clearly the destruction she saw the next day when she returned home.

“That day the fire broke all the rules,” she said.

Just months after, Paul and Kathy bought a dairy farm destroyed in the fire just a few kilometres up the road.

“They lost their livelihoods,” Kathy said. “When the fire went through it completely burnt everything.”

Then, with no grape growing or winemaking experience, they planted a vineyard that would eventually become Paracombe Wines.

Just months after the Ash Wednesday fires, Paul and Kathy Drogemuller bought a property destroyed in the blaze and planted vineyards. Picture: Supplied

Paracombe Wines’ Kathy Drogemuller in front of the vineyard they built in the wake of the Ash Wednesday fires. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“I don’t look at it and be bitter about it,” Paul said. “I’d rather just focus on the good that’s come out of it. I see it as the start of my new life.”

If faced with the decision again, Paul said he would stay and fight for his home every time.

CFS Para group officer Rob Styling fought to save many homes on that fateful day.

His Salisbury CFS crew were burnt-over twice as they chased the raging bushfire across the northern suburbs for three days.

“On Ash Wednesday we kicked a door down on a house and sought shelter while the fire passed. On the second day we backed up a driveway to a property and then the wind changed,” he said.

President Robert Styling, Bradley Coulter, Brian Menadue and vice-president Ken Potter pictured outside the Salisbury CFS. Picture: AAP Image/Sam Wundke

“I remember I was in the cab with a blanket over me and felt pretty safe, but I was extremely concerned for the guys on the back because we had no communication in those days.”

Fortunately, they all survived.

He said in his 51 years as a firefighter, nothing had compared with those fires.

“Ash Wednesday was the worst, they were the only two burn-overs I’ve ever been in,” he said.

He said it changed firefighting forever.

“It was not long after ‘83 that it changed from local government funding to state government funding and pretty soon all the old council-owned petrol trucks were gone and we had brand new equipment,” he said.

“We got on to the government radio network, training improved, co-ordination improved and we started to pay a lot more attention to stress, prevention and management.”