NRL great Ron Coote says he will rebuild his razed Lake Conjola home
After hours of battling flames, rugby League great Ron Coote thought he had saved his beloved Lake Conjola family home from the bushfires — but embers snuck in through the gutters and burnt it to the ground. Now he plans to rebuild it.
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Rugby league great Ron Coote thought he had saved his house from the vicious Currowan fire after hours of housing down walls of flames that surrounded his home of nearly 40 years.
But embers from the fast moving fire, that claimed more than 90 homes in Lake Conjola on the NSW south coast, snuck between tiny gaps in the home’s guttering, setting the house alight from the inside.
Despite this he wants to rebuild a new home, of the same likeness, on the property that was destroyed on New Year’s Eve.
“We have had a few bushfires come through here in the 40 years we have been here and there hasn’t been anything like this,” he said.
“It has been a great place to live. It is absolutely beautiful here and we loved that home. We’ll try and build it the same as we had it with only a few adjustments.
“One of the changes I will make is putting in railings that stop any gaps between the guttering. There will be no chance of embers getting through them.”
The family has been blown away by the generosity of their neighbours, local community and total strangers since their home was destroyed.
“Well we’re living in an apartment owned by people we hardly know, so that is amazing,” Mr Coote said.
“We had a lot of offers of people lending us a home, or a bed, or somewhere to stay straight after the fire. There has also been people wanting to give us clothes, whether that’s in person or when we go to a shop.
“There have also been lots of people giving food and looking after us like that.”
They applied for bushfire assistance from The Red Cross last week but are still waiting to see whether they will be allocated money.
Before the blaze rolled through Ron, his wife Robin and their daughter Natalie prepared for the fire as best they could.
They cleared leaf litter and dried out branches before hosing the home they had lived in since 1984.
With the help of his neighbours the family used mechanical pumps to drain water out of the house’s tanks and pool and spray down walls of fire when they approached.
While the former dual premiership-winning player was trying to defend his home, his wife and daughter ran through heavy smoke and spot fires to join hundreds of other locals sheltering in Lake Conjola.
They were stranded in the water with black smoke gathering overhead before being picked up by rescuers using jet skis and boats.
The makeshift ferry service took people from the edges of the lake, near the flames, and brought them to safety on the beach hundreds of metres from the flames.
The coastal hamlet of Lake Conjola was one of the hardest hit towns by the Currowan fire that burned through 313,339ha and destroyed hundreds of home on the south coast.
