Warrandyte home survives blaze while two homes next door are destroyed

UPDATE: A WARRANDYTE family is counting their blessings after their home was saved but two neighbouring houses were lost yesterday.

Yelda Hall, Adem, 11, Oscar, 9 months, Tim and Yasmine, 13, outside their home that was saved from yesterday’s f...

AT LEAST three properties were destroyed by fire in Warrandyte yesterday, but residentshave been finding out more today about how their homes fared.

A Glamis St home was lost and two other homes were destroyed in Amersham Drive. Leader will update from the area as information comes to hand.

Reporting by Melanie Gardiner, Laura Armitage and Anna Chisholm.

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3.38PM: IT was a sleepless night for Warrandyte residents Yelda and Tim Adal-Hall last night as fire crews worked into the morning to control the blaze that tore through their next door neighbour’s homes, burning them to the ground.

Their two-storey home still stands on Amersham Drive, completely intact, apart from part of their now blackened children’s cubby house, while the families in the next two blocks weren’t so lucky.

Mrs Adal-Hall was in the shower when she heard a bang. She was home alone with her daughters, while her husband was at football registrations at Templestowe with their 11-year-old son.

“I didn’t get a text message but I was checking. A few minutes later I heard a second explosion. I had my 13-year-old daughter and my nine-month-old baby Oscar,” she said.

“I looked down the street and I could see smoke. The girls down the end of the street said they saw the transmission box explode. The whole thing went up in flames.”

Just weeks ago the family had discussed a family emergency fire plan, after the recent Kangaroo Ground fires.

“I didn’t stay. I stayed at my Mum’s place with my baby. Tim stayed. He put on long pants, boots and my brother stayed at home with him. They were hosing the fire together. I was happy Tim wasn’t alone,” she said.

“I just left with the kids. The bush fire sprinkler system didn’t turn on. The battery was flat. We definitely could have been better prepared.”

Mr Adal-Hall sat up until about 3am, scouring the area for spot fires.

“I knew we had to leave when other residents were coming slowly up the street warning everyone,” she said.

“I was barefoot. I hadn’t even finished getting ready. We took nothing. I grabbed my baby and we ran to the car. The flames were up to the neighbour’s house.”

While both neighbour’s homes are gone, she said both families have remained upbeat despite the agony of losing all their belongings.

“They were quite distressed. But they have said it’s just stuff,” Mrs Adal-Hall said.

“They are insured but they had only been here for one year.”

CFA crews worked into the afternoon today, monitoring the smoke coming out of the ground, as tree roots and plants continued to burn.

Watered-down fire retardant was used to stop the ground smouldering.

“The crews worked very hard into the night. They changed shifts about 3am. I knew that Tim would be safer knowing that the CFA were there,” she said.

3.10PM: Warrandyte residents have raised concerns about the timing and distribution of text message warnings with many saying messages arrived too late, while others said they did not receive a message at all.

One business owner and Telstra customer, who did not want to be named, told Leader she did not receive a text-message warning despite being close to Amersham Drive when the fire started and having a Warrandyte billing address. She said a colleague, also with Telstra, had the same problem, while a staff member with a Thornbury billing address did receive an alert.

Parents attending a public meeting in Park Orchards last night after the day’s fires asked CFA members whether children would be safe during a school lockdown, while others asked about the safety of older members of the community.

When asked for a show of hands, about 25 per cent of the audience indicated they had left home because of the day’s extreme fire danger rating.

A Manningham Council spokesman said two people used an emergency relief centre set up at the Donvale Indoor Sports Centre.

The spokesman warned residents who had experienced Black Saturday that yesterday’s fire could trigger a strong emotional response and they should seek free counselling through the council or the Department of Human Services in Box Hill.

2.20PM: The public meeting at Park Orchards last night was attended by 150 people mostly from Warrandyte.

Families stayed behind after the meeting to learn whether they could return home for the night, pointing out their houses on a hand-drawn map stuck to the wall.

The map from the meeting at Park Orchards that residents were asked to mark their houses on.

Tindals Rd, between Warrandyte-Heidelberg Rd and Harris Gully Rd, was open to residents with identification, but homes closer to the fire zone remained off limits.

A Victoria Police officer explained to one Amersham Drive resident that underground gas lines were a potential danger that crews were working to make safe.

CFA operations officer Mark Kennedy warned the residents assembled at St Anne’s Primary School to expect flare ups throughout the week and report flames to 000.

1.43PM: Following the Warrandyte fire yesterday, a packed a community meeting in Park Orchards last night was punctuated with spontaneous applause as residents stood to express their heartfelt thanks to emergency services staff and volunteers.

One Glamis St resident said: “It (the fire) just came so fast.”

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1.36PM: Firefighters are still at the scene of a fire in Powelltown, in Powelltown-Learmonth Creek Rd, which is not yet contained.

They will be conducting back burning operations with smoke visible from nearby communities and roads.

There is no current threat to communities.

1.20PM: Among the residents waiting to be let back into Amersham Drive, Warrandyte last night were Joanne and Robert Hammond and daughter Georgina.

Mr Hammond said he had been allowed to walk halfway down the street and could see that his home was safe, but a house across the street and one behind had been destroyed.

“You could see flames down there still, it was still very close,” Mr Hammond said.

The family activated their fireplan and left Warrandyte — together with their two dogs — at 9.30am, but kept in contact with neighbours who reported hearing explosions when the blaze started.

Mrs Hammond said she emailed Amersham Drive residents a link to a video message from fire service commissioner Craig Lapsley the night before.

“Some of them headed out early and some of them didn’t,” Mrs Hammond said.

The Hammonds were unsure were they would spend the night last night and were considering a hotel, while the council helped to care for their dogs at the pound.

Customers, staff and dogs were forced to take shelter in a Warrandyte supermarket as fires tore through Melbourne’s outskirts on three fronts.

>> THE WARRANDYTE FIRE AS IT HAPPENED IN PICTURES

Warrandyte supermarket worker Julia Robertson, 21, was in lockdown at Quinton’s Supa IGA with customers and dogs when she learned her family’s home at 3 Glamis St had burnt down.

Ms Robertson said her family, his partner and her siblings had escaped, but everything else had been lost.

She said she was in shock, but knew Warrandyte’s tight-knit community would rally to support the family.

“The most important thing is that my family is safe. I’m thankful that I’m not attached to material items,” she said.

Quinton’s Supa IGA Warrandyte owner Julie Quinton said the store rostered skeleton staff on extreme fire danger days as part of a post-Black Saturday fire plan, with 15 customers, nine employees and three dogs sheltering in the store.

Also yesterday, residents fled their homes during a big grassfire in the Yarra Valley yesterday.

Fire authorities warned of a fast moving grass and scrub fire travelling in a southerly direction yesterday after the fire started on Yarra Junction-Noojee Rd in Gladysdale at 8.22am.

The road was closed as firefighters fought to bring the fire under control, and it was contained at 6.56pm.

State control centre spokeswoman Andrea Mason said there was 21 trucks at the scene, and they would remain there overnight, and firefighters would continue to black out the fire.

Gladysdale Primary School principal John Shackleton said the school was operating today, but about one third of the students were away because of the fire.

Mr Shackleton said many families had followed their bushfire plans and evacuated the area.