Pinery fire: Dramatic video by British tourists shows devastating speed and size of fire

DRAMATIC video by two British tourists fleeing the Pinery fire has emerged on social media, showing its devastating size and speed.

DRAMATIC video by two British tourists showing the terrifying scale of the Pinery fire has emerged on social media.

The six-minute video was taken on an iPhone 6 by Vera De Ruiter, 38, while her husband Peter Rosenfeld, 50, drove between Tarlee and Gawler on November 25.

*Warning the video contains language that may offend some readers.

The couple, from Cheshire in the United Kingdom, had driven down from Darwin to visit Mr Rosenfeld’s family in Whyalla, and were heading to Adelaide at about 2pm when they saw a thick cloud blanket the sky in front of them.

“We got quite excited to be honest,” Mr Rosenfeld told The Advertiser from England.

“We thought it was a tornado or a thundercloud or something.”

The tourists kept stopping to take photos and videos of the impending “storm” cloud, until Mr Rosenfeld put his window down and smelt the smoke.

A passer-by then told them to “get the hell out” and the video shows how they drove through virtual darkness to reach safety.

“Stupidly it was only in that moment we realised we had driven straight into a fire,” he said.

“That guy basically saved our lives.”

The couple also received a text message on Ms De Ruiter’s English mobile phone advising them to tune into the radio, as they drove helplessly away from the fire as the sky and the surrounding landscape turned to complete darkness within eight minutes.

“The radio message kept saying don’t drive, and activate your emergency bushfire plan but we didn’t even know what a bushfire was,” he said.

Mr Rosenfeld drove their hire car — a Mitsubishi MPV — at 120km/h and followed the brakelights of the car in front, which was travelling at high speed in a bid to escape the fire.

“My foot was to the floor and the car engine was choking on the smoke,” he said.

“I heard it (the ash cloud) hitting the side of the car and at that point I thought we were terminal.

“I just hoped that we were going to get out of it. I thought that we were just going to drive in to flames.”

Mr Rosenfeld said his family and friends who had seen the video were in disbelief.

“Firstly at our ignorance as tourists and what we did in the bushfire,” he said.

“Then the shock and the horror of how quickly we were engulfed in the armageddon-style cloud of bloody doom and gloom.”

The couple said they were disappointed about the lack of warnings given to tourists when they arrived at Australian airports and hotels about bushfires.

“I was worried about a terrorist attack flying home and here I was about to perish in a bushfire,” he said.

“We were constantly bombarded with crocodile, lakes, don’t swim here, be careful with sharks but not once were we warned about bushfires.”

Mr Rosenfeld said Australians who had commented on the video had said ‘it’s people like you that put our fire service at risk’.

“They’re absolutely right. We put those people at risk if they had to come out and save us and risked their own lives,” he said.

“Watching videos like my video will help people understand the speed that you can get yourself into trouble no matter how light-hearted and clever you think you are.

“It’s bigger than you, and people have to research and respect other countries.”