Desperate calls to mum, alone at home in Tathra
FORMER Tathra local Jai Carter spent almost an hour frantically trying to contact his mother, who was alone at the family home “right in the thick of it” yesterday.
NSW
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FORMER Tathra local Jai Carter spent almost an hour frantically trying to contact his mother, who was alone at the family home “right in the thick of it” yesterday.
Mr Carter, 19, who now lives in Bondi with his older sister Kiah, could only watch helplessly as the fire raged toward the town where he grew up.
He tried to warn his mother but the power was down and he could not reach her.
It was more than an hour later before he learned she had safely fled, alerted by firefighters going door-to-door, and driven to a friend’s house at Bunga, near Bermagui.
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The fate of the home his parents built themselves is not known but Mr Carter said things were “looking pretty bad”.
“Being one of the first few houses as you come into the street surrounded by bush, we pretty much have no hope,” he said.
“It’s a pretty sad day when you lose a place that you have called home from the day you were born — especially when both parents built it with their bare hands.”
He said his mother was “pretty distraught as you would be ... just on the edge of her seat waiting to find out what the damage is”.
Mr Carter said his mother was at the house alone while his dad Christopher and younger brother Levi were up the coast on a surfing trip.
“Dad and my little brother are in disbelief, as am I and my older sister Kiah,” he said.
“But the main thing is that my mother and all of my friends are safe and out of the area.”
Mr Carter said he couldn’t believe how fast his old town had gone up in flames.
“It’s ridiculous. Even the primary school I attended is pretty well gone,” he said.
“I just find it very hard to believe all this has happened within a matter of hours.
“Growing up you’d always hear about fire hazards but having a fire of this level come through and destroy most of the town is something that you don’t even think is possible.”