Sherwood bushfire rips through rural SA, destroying three houses and farming equipment
OFFERS of cash, goods and hay to feed stock stranded in blackened paddocks are flooding in for the farmers hit by the Sherwood fire.
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OFFERS of cash, goods and hay to feed stock stranded in blackened paddocks are flooding in for the farmers hit by the Sherwood fire.
The donations include a load of 1200 hay bales to feed stock on the property of Rick and Linda Moss, who were forced to flee when flames bore down on their home and destroyed it late Saturday.
Their neighbour Robyn Verrall said the emotion of Saturday’s intense blaze was replaced by mixed feelings of relief that nobody was killed along with a determination to help the Moss family rebuild.
“I have actually had a couple of phone calls in the past hour with offers of truckloads of fodder for people that have lost paddocks,” Ms Verrall said.
“It is a pretty amazing offer of generosity and kindness, it’s just a bit overwhelming,” she said.
Ms Verrall, who was the victim of a previous blaze two years ago, said the support that includes a GoFundMe page for the Moss family was not surprising.
“It’s just the Australian spirit for everyone to get in and help each other out in situations like this. My husband is back out there helping again today, the fire is contained but it is still going and there is a lot of smoke in the area.”
When Mr Moss, 47, first heard about the fire, it was 10km away and he didn’t think much of it.
“But within half an hour, it was here,” he said. “I actually thought it was going to go past us but the wind changed and it came straight for us. It took hold of the hay shed and I knew there would be no stopping it.
“I saw the flames out the back here, just past those trees, coming towards us and that’s when I darted back inside and said ‘Linda we’re going now’.
“We jumped straight in her car and took off. You see these things on TV and think it would never happen to you.”
Mr Moss said he knew as soon as they left that the house would be destroyed.
The couple had lived in the house, owned by Steven Jaeschke, for only two months and had just finished giving it a lick of paint and making it more presentable.
“We just got the house looking good, but there’s not much you can do about a fire,” Mr Moss said.
The only item Ms Moss, 44, grabbed as ferocious flames closed in on their home was her camera, a gift from her husband she had wanted for some time. Sadly, the couple were not insured.
The Moss home was one of three lost. The other two were vacant.
Mr Jaeschke was having his afternoon snooze when he was woken and told a large fire had started near Keith.
“My son was right at the source and had been checking some sheep and he saw it get going and he raised the alarm,” he said.
“I had a tractor in the shed and I wanted to try and save (properties), well not save , that sounds a bit glamorous doesn’t it, but was trying to plough a fire break. The fire was a fair way away so I thought it was best to be prepared in case it came through here.
“I ploughed breaks behind the houses there and I think that contributed to saving them. Well it was a bit of a strategy I suppose.
“We’re in farming, that’s what we do for a living, and we look after the soil as best we can and now all the soil cover is gone.” As well as the two houses, Mr Jaeschke, who has lived on the outskirts of Keith for 30 years, lost hundreds of sheep, fences and sheds. Much of his 5000 acres was charred.
“We’ve had hail storms and floods, now we’ve had fires. I’ve just spent three days assessing hail damage from about four weeks ago. You’ve got to be tough to live here.”
He had never seen a fire as intense as Saturday’s.
“It was almost the perfect storm for the day. But there were a lot of things that went well. We’re fortunate that no one got hurt and we didn’t lose all the houses.”
He felt a sense of responsibility for the Moss family because he had encouraged them to live at his property.
“We own the land and there’s quite a few houses that we’ve inherited and we want to have tenants because I want to see people living here, build a sense of community — that’s very important to me,” he said.
Agronomist Peter Ellison, 36, also rented a home from Mr Jaeschke at Noranda Station, but was fortunate the fire stopped just 5m from it. His wife Mareike and their two daughters, aged 3 and 4, evacuated to Bordertown, while Mr Ellison, a volunteer CFS firefighter, helped battle the blaze.
“I didn’t know if I was going to come back to a pile of embers or not,” he said. “It’s pretty nerve-racking when you’re away from your property and you’re aware the fire is imminent. You can hear things on the CFS radio and you just don’t know if it’s going to be OK or if the fire is going to take hold and you’ll lose everything.” The Ellisons lost cars and one chicken in the blaze.
