Qld bushfires: Wallangarra couple recount confusion in line of fire

An army of brave residents armed with just hoses and hope scrambled to save their own homes and a beloved border town. WATCH THEIR STORY

An army of brave residents armed with just hoses and hope scrambled to save their own homes and a beloved Queensland border town after they were told to flee but then stay and bunker down in the path of a fast-moving fire.

On Tuesday night, the town of Wallangarra with only 400 people rushed to put out the dangerous blaze in people’s yards, sheds, and the school as a “wall of flames” quickly approached.

Some residents split up from loved ones, fearing they’d never see them or their homes again.

Others left their properties in the hands of fearless neighbours who fought the blaze before fire crews arrived to help.

Drone footage captures Frank and Mylene Novacco attempting to escape the raging bushfire. Picture: Supplied

Frank and Mylene (Mylo) Novacco were captured in harrowing aerial video desperately in their car rushing away from their Rockwell St home in their car alongside two other utes as the fire lashed the end of the street.

The couple left their home in the hands of neighbours to save, but were frantically running back and forth to the car, getting some clothes, and checking on their dog.

“We drove off, stopped out there, I got out the car, came back down and said let’s go,” Mr Novacco said.

“They said (the neighbours) no we are going to try and stop it here. By the time I got back to the car, the flames were nearly on the car.

“I jumped back in the car and we looked back and you could not see anything.”

Wallangarra residents Frank and Mylene Novacco with dog Dougal at their home saved from the fire by local residents. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mrs Novacco said: “I got in the car, ran back and grabbed the dog, then threw him in the car. Then I ran back and grabbed some bags.” There were tears as The Courier-Mail on Wednesday showed the couple the dramatic footage of them fleeing for the first time as the emotion of the close call came flooding back.

“We were just thinking those flames are going to hit the car at any moment,” Mr Novacco said.

“We looked back and just saw the wall of flames and I didn’t really know where they were or what they were actually doing. As we got up the road, Tony phoned us and said it looks like we got it under control.”

The bushfire roaring towards Wallangarra.

Their neighbour, Tony Murphy, said he just ran on adrenaline to try and save their houses and managed to contain it before the firefighters arrived.

“I went straight down there and fought a fire with a hose. I wasn’t thinking I was just trying to hose it down,” he said.

“Then my mate came with another hose.

“We both stayed there until we got it under control.”

Mr Murphy said everyone was fighting fires, across the street and near the school.

“We got this one under control and then the school grass was on fire so we put that out with hoses,” he said.

“Everyone was pulling together trying to get it out.

“Adrenaline was pumping, we had to get it out.

“The smoke hit my eyes, it was stinging, and you just couldn’t see, I just started coughing, I just couldn’t breathe.”

Mark Garth saved his home with a Gerni hose and the help of other residents. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Murphy and the Novaccos were among residents originally told to leave the town just after 2pm as the fire raced out of control south down the New England Highway. But 16 minutes later a warning went out that it was no longer safe to flee before a Boeing 737 waterbombing plane from NSW helped steer the fire around Wallangarra.

But the neighbours who all worked together despite the tough circumstances had so much joy when it was contained.

“Once the houses were saved, there was a lot of relief,” he said. “We had to do what we had to do, you don’t think about it at the time.”

One of the homes damaged in the fire. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Novacco said he got a call to come back but didn’t know what they’d come back to. “It was just so thick with smoke, we could hardly see the road,” he said.

“As we got back to the top of the road, we thought we’d come back to nothing.

Mrs Novacco said she was so grateful for her neighbours.

“They are the most wonderful people in the whole world,” she said. “I don’t know if it would’ve been here if they didn’t help us.”

Once the fires were out Mrs Novacco also tried to help the school fires by jumping over the fences to put it out.

Throughout the night, that was all the town tried to do.

“We were down there for quite a few hours into the night, trying to put out spot fires, and the trees were the main worry because they were still alight,” he said.

“Every time we put them out but as soon as you walked away they were just ablaze again.”

Scorched earth shows how close the fire came to residences in Wallangarra. Picture: Liam Kidston

A couple of streets over from Rockwell St, Mark Garth was putting out the blaze with his Gerni after he told his family to get out.

“I hooked the pressure Gerni and used it to put it out,” he said.

“She was a bit warm.

“I got the whole Gerni there and sprayed it around.

“I was alone first up and then my dad and brother ended up coming over and my brother was fighting this fire over here and then we spotted it in the shed, then we had to chase it in the shed.”

Wallangarra residents were given just 16 minutes to escape.

Mr Garth said the firefighters came out after to try and help dousing a tree that was “roaring” with water.

His wife Rebecca Matthews said it was a torturous time, waiting for her husband that she had to split up from as all she could see was “black and grey”.

“I knew hubby was over here. And it was like, Is the house still there? Is he there? Like you didn’t know,” she said. “Yeah, so for 45 minutes, it was the sickest feeling anyone could go through.”

Ms Matthews said the town was so happy when they found out properties were saved.

“News came through that properties were saved,” she said.

“Then we got to come back over and seeing what they had done was amazing.

“There was news that one house got lost, which was just up the highway here as you can see, which is really sad.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been in.”

Originally published as Qld bushfires: Wallangarra couple recount confusion in line of fire