NSW bushfires: Daughter brings pensioner dad joy amid devastation
An Aussie “battler pensioner” who lost everything in the fires tearing through northern NSW has collapsed in tears after hearing that his daughter has raised thousands to help him.
NSW
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An 83-year-old Aussie battler who lost everything in the bushfires tearing through the northern NSW town of Rappville “dissolved into tears” of joy when his daughter this morning told him she had raised thousands to support him and his wife.
Just a few years after surviving a terminal cancer diagnosis and the worst bushfires in Australian history, pensioner John Duncan, 83, on Tuesday lost everything in the blazes decimating the town of Rappville.
A picture posted to Twitter by daughter Carol Duncan revealed the charred remnants of the home John shared with his wife Cassie.
Aged eight when his mother died, the “pensioner battler” is all too familiar with loss but the cruel hand of fate on Monday dealt him yet another blow, destroying everything he left behind after firefighters rescued him and Cassie from a shed outside his burning home.
Intent on bringing her father some much-needed joy in the wake of devastation, John’s daughter Carol on Tuesday launched a crowd funding page which has now raised more than $12,000.
Carol Duncan, a Newcastle councillor and media professional, told the Telegraph that her father crumbled with tears of joy when she told him this morning that she launched the page to help him and his wife, Cassie, to access bare essentials like food and medicine.
Carol, who deleted the page three times before posting it, says she has been humbled by the response from both Go Fund Me and the community and says her father’s gratitude is immense.
“I know my father would be hugely grateful, embarrassed, and mumble and mutter through tears and just say thank you.”
The funds that aren’t needed by John will go to support the Rural Fire Service and the local Rappville community.
“It’s not just dad but think 30 homes so 30 families who just like dad have lost every single thing.”
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
● Police believe one of the fires may have been deliberately lit
● 51 fires burning across NSW, 13 are uncontained
● Two Watch and Act fires burning at Busbys Flat and Drake have merged
● Up to 30 homes have been destroyed near Busbys Flat
● 500 firefighters, 200 vehicles are on the ground
● Winds eased and temperatures cooled overnight
From my father. #NSWfires ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ pic.twitter.com/uyQxH4rQ4C
— Carol Duncan (@carolduncan) October 8, 2019
The fires ravaging northern NSW decimated John’s Rappville home, taking everything in its path, including a precious photograph of his mother and his walking stick.
But Carol says her father was lucky this time after firefighters responded to a tweet asking for advice and went to his Rappville home, where he and Carrie were taking refuge in a shed, to take them to safety.
“So, the RFS people who went and got my Dad and his partner OUT OF THE SHED thanks to Twitter ... saved my Dad’s life,” Ms Duncan said.
John is one of more than 30 residents who have lost their homes to the fires which have devastated the close-knit town of 250 people.
Described by his daughter as a “proud man,” Duncan has been suffering ill health for years, including several strokes and is due to receive test results today.
The wrath of the fire has brought the normally resilient octogenarian to his knees, with his daughter saying he has been very “distressed.”
Intent on leaving behind the devastation of the 2003 bushfires, Duncan left Canberra “not wanting to go through [the fires] again.”
Messages of support for Duncan are flooding in on his Go Fund Me page.
There are fears more homes have been razed overnight, with some residents losing everything.
“I’ve lost the bloody sheds, the house, lost everything,” Rappville resident Danny Smith told reporters on the scene.
“We might have saved the second place but everything else has gone.”
More than 80,000 hectares of ground have been burned.
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