Black Saturday survivor turned police officer volunteers to help bushfire communities
When Jess Bullas was 15, she was trapped in her Kinglake home during one of Australia’s worst natural disasters. But after a miraculous survival, she went on to become a police officer and put her hand up to help during the recent Victorian bushfires.
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Trapped inside as a roaring inferno – one of the worst Australia has ever seen – surrounded their home, Jess Bullas remembers calling friends and relatives to say goodbye.
It was February 7, 2009 and Ms Bullas, then 15, and her family had tried to escape their Kinglake property when they were met with a wall of flames in the driveway.
“The fire came so quickly by the time we had packed our bags and were driving out of the driveway, it was coming up the driveway,” she said.
“We had to take shelter in our house and we were calling people saying goodbye.”
This summer, almost 11 years on, the Black Saturday survivor and now Victoria Police constable found herself back on the frontline of another major Australian bushfire crisis.
She was one of the first of 60 officers from the North West Metro Region to put her hand up when the email went around asking for volunteers to relieve exhausted colleagues in the state’s bushfire ravaged northeast.
“Ever since that experience, I’ve always known what those people have gone through and I want to be helping them and giving my experience to other people and trying to explain how quickly (fire) can come and the dangers of it,” Constable Bullas said.
“As soon as we got the email I spoke to the boss and said I really want to be helping and they sent me up that night.”
The Brunswick officer volunteered for two deployments in January and spent almost two weeks carrying out traffic management duties, community reassurance patrols and evacuations in the Ovens Valley region.
She helped locals safely escape the Buffalo River Valley area south of Myrtleford when fire threatened the community on the night of January 16.
She said she had “mixed emotions” when people told her they were staying to fight the inferno but she could understand why they didn’t want to leave their properties.
“It was hard for me when people said they’re going to stay and fight because I just wanted to convince them to come,” Constable Bullas said.
“But at the same time I could understand these people have had these properties for hundreds of years and this was their whole livelihood and they wanted to stay and protect it.”
Her house survived in 2009 but they lost all of their property, cars, some animals and a lot of fencing.
She said this summer was a “humbling experience” and she was blown away by the generosity of locals.
“So many stopped by to check if we were OK or needed anything – they were just as worried about our welfare as their own,” Constable Bullas said.
“People would yell out ‘thank you’ as we walked down the streets.
“One resident dropped off an Esky of homemade sandwiches, muesli bars and water to us.
“I would go back out there in a heartbeat and I would even look at moving to the country because they’re such beautiful people and everyone is so nice.”
One of her bosses at Brunswick also had her own contrasting experiences of the Black Saturday and 2019 disasters.
The day after February 7, 2009, then senior constable Kate O’Neill was sent to Marysville to help with body recovery.
“I was told I was going there for four days and three months later I came home,” Sen-Sgt O’Neill said.
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“It was a very different feel (this year). It was nice to be involved in more of the community aspect of it – the evacuations, relief centres and traffic management points.”
She said she couldn’t be prouder of her troops at Brunswick police station.
“I couldn’t hold them back, they couldn’t come to my office quick enough to volunteer,” Sen-Sgt O’Neill said.
“It just shows the types of members that we have – they’re willing to help, stay away from their family and loved ones and sleep in not the best conditions to help the community.”
And with the fire danger period still not over, both officers are ready for another deployment should they be required again.