Wife reacts to Terrey Hills firefighter husband’s dramatic viral video of a crowning fire
A wife has posted a message about what it is like to see your loved ones go off to the bushfire frontline, sparked by a dramatic video her husband sent her of a terrifying blaze he was at that raced through the treetops.
Manly
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A wife of a volunteer firefighter who took a terrifying video of an out of control blaze he was called to in the Blue Mountains has written about the emotional toll of being at home while a loved one is on the frontline.
Jen Duff, 37, of Terrey Hills, posted the message on her personal Facebook page, along with husband Peter’s dramatic video of a crowning fire — which is when the flames races through the tops of trees.
Her post was then copied on the Terrey Hills RFS page and has been shared hundreds of times, while the video taken on December 15 has gone viral around the world.
Even though Ms Duff has seen videos and photos before, this one got to her.
“Seeing that video made it extra real for me,” Ms Duff told the Manly Daily.
“It was like, ‘Holy hell, look at that’.”
The mum-of-two said when her husband – who joined the Rural Fire Service when he was 16 and is now captain at Terrey Hills – runs out the door on a fire job she says to herself: “Please, please, please, come home to us”.
She also spoke about how exhausting it was for him, her sleepless nights when he’s away and their two boys Toby, 7, and Hayden, 3, who constantly ask whether daddy is at the station.
“People are sacrificing their own time and family life,” she said.
“He’s also going to work and he still has to be a father and a husband.”
They are both expecting he will be called out on Christmas Day.
Ms Duff said she will be devastated for the children if that happens but understands why.
On her Facebook post Ms Duff wrote “Please nurture these selfless people and remember that they mean the world to ones they leave at home.
“We reluctantly, but graciously let them go. All the while terrified they may pay the ultimate price.”
Mr Duff, also 37, and works as a crane and truck driver, said of the fire at Berambing, that he had enough experience to know he and his crew were safe.
He said it was unsettling for one of the younger members of the team.
“We could hear it coming and it sounded like a freight train as it was coming up the hill,” he said.
“There was nothing we could do, we had to wait for the fire front to pass. It took about five minutes to go through the tops of the trees.
“It was a reality check and a head check for one man just in the service six months.”
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